Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Three months into her pregnancy in December of 2024, Vera Belazelkoska began what has become a rite of passage for many Toronto families: applying to daycare waitlists.
Twenty-four of them, in fact, with an extensive spreadsheet set up to track all those applications.
“It feels like a little job of its own,” Belazelkoska told CBC News.
“And yet I still have no infant spot for my daughter, and have to delay daycare, and have to delay going back to work.”
It’s been five years since the federal government launched its plan for a Canada-wide, $10-a-day daycare program.
While the move has been described as life-changing by parents who have been able to access more affordable child care, a dearth of spaces and jousting between levels of government over funding has has meant gaps remain in Ontario.
Belazelkoska, for example, has applied to both for-profit and non-profit organizations that are part of the program, as well as more expensive options that are not — just because her family feels like they might not have a choice.
But even in more expensive private daycares outside of the program, they still haven’t been able to secure a spot. Word of mouth has helped her connect with a home daycare in her neighbourhood that might have space come September, but “in a daycare centre, we are nowhere near close to getting a spot,” she said.
‘How is this good for the economy?’ mom asks
It’s a common refrain in her neighbourhood. Belazelkoska says she hears from other parents nearby who also say they have had to take a lot more time off from work than originally planned after having a kid.
“How is this good for the economy, all of these people delaying their work?” she said.
The provincial government secured a one-year extension with Ottawa for the child-care agreement at the end of last year. The program — which lowers fees to $19 a day on average in Ontario as an interim step toward $10 — had been set to expire on March 31.
A “significant increase” in federal funding is necessary for the stability and longevity of the program, said Emma Testani, spokesperson for Education Minister Paul Calandra.
“Without a revised federal funding commitment, the long-term success of the … program is at risk,” she said in an email.
A spokesperson for Ontario Minister of Education Paul Calandra says the longevity of the $10-per-day target under the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement requires a ‘significant increase in federal funding.’ (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Testani did not respond when asked if the province is tracking how many Ontarians are currently on waitlists for child care.
Employment and Social Development Canada spokesperson Jessica Lacombe, meanwhile, told CBC News in an email that the federal and provincial governments will “continue to work together towards long-term solutions” and support the system’s implementation “beyond 2026.”
“Each province and territory has the responsibility to develop child care systems that work best to respond to the needs and priorities of their communities,” she said, noting that the federal government has earmarked $15.4 billion for the program in Ontario alone since its launch and into 2027.
Lacombe also said that as of June, Ontario is reporting that about 41,000 new child-care spaces have been created in the province, toward a goal of 86,000 by the end of this year.
More ECEs needed: advocate
Carolyn Ferns with the advocacy group Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care says it would take a “significant expansion of spaces” to clear the province’s waitlist, which she believes is tied to a shortage of early childhood educators (ECEs).
“That’s where we need to put a lot of emphasis, and that’s going to take more resources from both the federal and provincial governments to make that happen,” she said.
Providers, she says, are having a hard time staffing the spaces they have, let alone opening up new ones. But if the province was to retain and recruit more ECEs with decent work and pay, that would help close the gap, Ferns said.
“If we did that, we could have more access very quickly, because honestly we have spaces closed right now,” she said. “The rooms are there, but they’re not staffed, they’re not running because we don’t have the ECEs.”
Testani, the province’s spokesperson, says Ontario has launched a “comprehensive workforce strategy” for registered childhood educators that includes higher wages, better working conditions and career development.
