Canadian Daycares Planning Rolling Closures in Protest of Funding Model

Animal puppets are seen at a daycare facility in Langley, B.C., in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

Thousands of daycare centres across Canada will hold rolling closures between Oct. 21 and 25  to protest the federal government’s move to universal child care and funding changes for existing centres.

Ottawa announced in 2021 that it would introduce a federal child-care program to reduce the cost of care to $10 a day for parents. The program, dubbed the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Plan (CWELCC), is being rolled out gradually by provinces. The federal government earmarked $27 billion in funding over five years to build the program.

However, some child-care centres and associations have said the national program is removing provincial schemes that many centres have been relying on. They also say the terms imposed by the federal government to qualify for the funding are too onerous and remove flexibility.

Anya Kerr, owner of Stepping Stone Early Learning Academy in Muskoka, Ont., said the changes will affect the quality of care she provides at her centre.

“We have heightened art programs and music programs, and we do a lot for our families, like family barbecues, parent nights, field trips for the kids,” she told The Epoch Times. “Things like that will not be eligible under the new funding model, so our families will be losing a lot of the experiences, which are the reason why they chose to have their children at our centre.”

Kerr said a goal of the rolling closures is to inform parents about the impact of the province’s new funding model on child-care providers.

“The most important achievement that we’re trying to accomplish by doing this is involving the parents with the conversation, because parents and the general public, as of right now, have next to no information about the effects of the CWELCC system, and what it’s actually looking like for the people that provide their care,” she said.

The AACE National Committee on Childcare Reform, which wants to create awareness about the impact of Ottawa’s plan, said parents who will be affected by the closures will be notified.

AACE co-chair Krystal Churcher told The Epoch Times thousands of child-care centres are expected to participate in the awareness week, but not all will close.

“We’re not dictating to anyone how they participate in this,” she said.  “There’s lots of different ways that people will be participating in that week outside of closures [including] T-shirt campaigns, letter campaigns, and parents awareness nights.”

A virtual information session will be held on Oct. 17 for parents and others interested in learning more about the child-care funding changes. The event is free and more information can be found on the AACE website.

‘Heartwarming’ Support

Families that use her centre have largely been supportive, Kerr said, when they did an early trial.

“We did our first walk-out on Oct. 4, and we had easily 20 parents come down with their kids to show support,” she said. “Some stayed with us all day long, just standing, showing their support. It’s been really heartwarming to have that response from the families.”

While several child-care associations in Ontario say they do not support the closures, including the Association of Day Care Operators of Ontario, the Canadian Council of Montessori Administrators, and the Ontario Federation of Independent Schools, the organizations have acknowledged owners’ frustration.

“While we appreciate the concerns of the child care facilities that may be involved in the service interruptions, and in many cases share them, we reject the premise that inconveniencing hardworking families is necessary for effective advocacy in this regard,” the groups said in an Oct. 1 joint statement.

They also noted that the federal auditor general has undertaken an audit of the CWELCC program.

Affordability Program

The Ontario government announced in 2022 a change to its child-care funding model so parents will pay $22 a day for care in January 2025, with the amount falling to $10 a day in 2026.

Ontario had anticipated the national daycare program would create 86,000 new spaces, but officials say only 51,000 have been added, and only half are CWELCC program spaces. The province said a federal cap on for-profit spaces has resulted in applications for spaces being rejected.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Ontario minister  of education, who is the provincial authority on child-care issues, but did not hear back by publication time.

The province blames a federal cap on for-profit spaces for thousands of applications being rejected. Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop’s office said Ottawa has been asked to lift the cap.

Federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development of Canada Jenna Sudds has said that she is open to discussing lifting the cap. However, she has asked for details on how the province is creating more non-profit centres since the $10-a-day systems are supposed to be largely non-profit.

The federal government says the program will help make life more affordable for Canadian families.

“This is an economic issue as much as it is a social issue,” the Department of Finance says.

“The government’s plan to build a Canada-wide, community-based early learning and child care system will create new jobs and growth, and get parents—especially mothers—into the workforce.”

Process Change

The Association of Day Care Operators of Ontario, the provincial industry association for independent licensed child-care centres, said daycare centres that participate in the CWELCC program after December must change their expenditure accounting process, which includes entering financial information into a digital calculator tool issued by the province.

Many daycare centres feel overwhelmed by the process, ADCO said in an Oct. 10 release.

“They’ve already had to overhaul their financial reporting systems once when Ontario first signed onto the federal program,” executive director Andrea Hannen said in the release.

“That seems to be at the root of why some centres are protesting the changes. A lot of them still don’t know if they’ll be better or worse off financially, so it isn’t necessarily about the money, but about feeling pushed to prioritize government paperwork over everything else.”

In an Aug. 15 news release, the Ontario government said the new system and funding approach for operators in the CWELCC program is a simple and easy-to-administer system that will be consistent across the province and provide funding based on the true costs of operating.

“This new formula will provide the stability and predictability operators need to continue to expand and create more affordable child care spaces for Ontario families,” then-Education Minister Todd Smith said in the release.