Ontario weakened its $10-a-day child care funding rules. Now the federal government is demanding answers.
The Ontario government wants to repeal its budget cap on child care places for children in families with incomes up to $180,000, which it imposed when the province launched the program in 2004. The cap reduces the potential number of child care spaces from 28,000 to 16,000 spaces.
The cap means there is more pressure to find child care spaces, which, in turn, means parents with more income have to pay more to make ends meet, which means families with lower incomes may end up paying more than they need to live.
The cap also means more families move to Prince Edward County or other parts of the province – places where the price of child care is lower than in the GTA – to take advantage of the lower costs. The cap would have forced many more families to leave.
In its budget, the government’s child care ombudsman, Michael Bryant, says the government’s decision to put in place a cap was based on a misinterpretation of the law, and that the government should not repeal the cap.
In his Budget Speech last spring, the Ontario government said it would repeal the $10-a-day cap, or eliminate it, if it didn’t find new child care to replace it. For families making between $180,000 and $450,000, the cap is $10 a day, plus $80 a day in out of pocket costs.
In his Budget Speech last spring, the Ontario government said it would repeal the $10-a-day cap, or eliminate it, if it didn’t find new child care to replace it. For families making between $180,000 and $450,000, the cap is $10 a day, plus $80 a day in out of pocket costs.
But that doesn’t mean the government