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Province to create 45,000 new child care spaces

'We're deliberately thinking big and aiming high on behalf of Ontario's children' - Early Years and Child Care Minister
child care blocks 2017
The Ontario government has announced $1.6 billion in capital funding as part of its plan to create 45,000 new licensed child care spaces over the coming year.

The Ontario government has announced $1.6 billion in capital funding as part of its plan to create 45,000 new licensed child care spaces over the coming year.

This is the province's largest-ever investment in capital funding for child care. The 45,000 new spaces are part of Ontario's plan to roll out 100,000 new licensed spaces over the next five years for children between the ages of 0-4, and increasing access from 20 per cent to 40 per cent of children within that age group.

The announcement came on June 6 from Early Years and Child Care Minister Indira Naidoo-Harris, who explained that these new spaces will be located in schools, publicly owned buildings, and places of employment across the province.

"We are transforming our early years and child care system," said Naidoo-Harris. "In last fall's throne speech, we made the historic commitment to help 100,000 more children ages zero to four access licensed child care within five years."

Minister Naidoo-Harris and deputy minister Shannon Fuller travelled to 19 different communities around the province over the winter to host town hall meetings and to speak with early childhood educators, parents and care providers about what they felt was important for creating a high-quality and accessible child care system.

Sudbury was one of those stops on the tour of the province, where Fuller identified six key areas: affordability, responsiveness, accessibility and quality.

Those key areas have since grown from four to six with the addition of developing a renewed approach to inclusion, in order to better serve children with autism, mental health challenges and other special needs.

The province said it will also consider broadening and reworking subsidies for families who need them. This could include possibly expanding their availability to both middle-income and low-income families as part of a larger examination of affordability. 

Ontario will also establish a provincial definition to determine what constitutes "quality" child care.

"This is important because we can't begin to talk about quality without being able to define it," said Naidoo-Harris.

The province will also develop an outcomes and measurements strategy to track their progress and results with respect to early years child care, and the province will start to issue annual reports that will allow people in the child care sector to get a better idea of where the province is headed with their plan.

"We want to increase public awareness, and we're going to be moving forward with a provincewide campaign to ensure that families know what they're going to be able to access," said Naidoo-Harris. 

"In addition, we'll be creating an online resource hub where families can go to find out about everything that's happening with regards to child care. I believe this framework reflects the feedback and guidance we have received from parents, families, caregivers and partners that we have across Ontario."

There are no concrete decisions in place as to where in the province these first 45,000 spaces will be rolled out, and Naidoo-Harris said there is still assement to be done, though $200 million of the $1.6 billion has been earmarked for this first wave of new spaces.

The plan will also create 20,000 new early childhood educator jobs across the province.

"We recognize that our plan is transformative and bold and what we are doing is ensuring that in Ontario we are setting up a model that will create enough affordable licensed child care spaces for the kids out there that need these space," said Naidoo-Harris.

"We're really ensuring that we're creating enough space and giving families the access that they need. We're deliberately thinking big and aiming high on behalf of Ontario's children, families and child care professionals, and this will position Ontario as a leader in the sector for creating a system that gives children the best possible start in life."