The latest figures reveal that 535 of the roughly 1,000 licensed operators in Toronto had applied to join the program as of last week, while 28 had indicated their intention to opt out.
However, participation in the program so far appears to vary significantly depending on a center’s operating model.
The city says about 444 of Toronto’s 726 not-for-profit centers have filed paperwork to join the program so far, with hundreds more expected to make their intentions clear by the deadline.
But as of last week, only 91 for-profits had opted in, representing less than 30 percent of those centers.
In an interview with CP24.com, Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care President Carolyn Ferns said she is optimistic there will be “nearly 100% buy-in” among non-profit centers by the 2022 funding deadline. .
This funding will then be used to reduce parent fees by 25 per cent on average, retroactive to 1 April.
Ferns, however, admitted there is more uncertainty about for-profit centres, which account for about a quarter of all child care spaces in Toronto.
Many of these centers have expressed concerns about the long-term implications of signing the agreement and whether they will be able to eventually reduce fees to $10 a day with the level of funding provided.
“I have heard their arguments but at the end of the day this is real money for parents and there is no risk to them this year (when fees were only to be reduced by 25 per cent),” he said. “They’re saying ‘Oh well, what if we opt out this year and have to opt out and tell parents their fees are going up again?’ Well, yeah, I guess it would be hard, but I think it would be harder to tell the parents that you’re going to keep $5,000 that they owe. I just think that’s really unethical.”
When the Ford government reached a $13.2 billion deal with the federal government in March, becoming the last province to do so, it indicated that parents could start receiving rebates backdated to April as soon as spring.
But that hasn’t materialized in Toronto, where officials say operators won’t even be told the status of their application until after the Sept. 1 deadline. Discounts retroactive to April 1 will likely begin in October, a spokesman said.
The Fern organization represents nearly 200 nonprofit centers.
He told CP24.com that while there were many concerns about the impact of changing how child care is initially funded, most centers he spoke with recently have either already applied for the $10-a-day program or are in the process of in the process of doing so.
Ferns said “clear policy communication” around the program may have been “absent” at times, contributing to the concern of some agencies.
But he said that’s somewhat by design, with guidelines for joining the program in 2023 still to be finalized.
“It’s understandable that there will be some flexibility this year and that’s why they did this two-stage process,” he said. “They’re saying, ‘Let’s work out the kinks and bumps this year and then consult with the industry to create, you know, a system that works for next year.’ I think that’s what they’re trying to do right? And that was all they could do, because if they had come out of the gate, you know, in April, with very strict, very detailed funding guidelines and then it turned out that they didn’t work, you know, it would have been a lot worse.”
Operators worry about dwindling supplies without firm funding guarantees for 2023
Under the terms of the agreement with the federal government, centers participating in the program must reduce fees by an average of 25 percent immediately and then another 25 percent in 2023.
The ultimate goal of the deal is to further reduce childcare fees to an average of $10 a day by 2026.
Speaking to CP24.com, Ferns said she hopes most for-profits will eventually opt for 2022 “as an act of good faith,” knowing they can always opt out in future years.
But Maggie Mosser, who is director of the Ontario Association of Independent Child Care Centres, says operators struggle with the prospect of reducing fees when little is known about funding levels in 2023 and beyond.
“When we talk about a decrease in revenue, we’re talking about a decrease in the money that the center has to operate,” he told CTV News Toronto on Monday. “So to make sure the centers are sustainable, we need to make sure we know what funding stream is going to replace the revenue, and that’s the part that’s not clear right now.”
Mosser said that so far none of the roughly 300 for-profits her association represents have chosen to participate in the program, as far as she knows. However, he said the group met with Education Minister Stephen Lecce earlier this week to talk about “solutions to allow parents to receive their funding for 2022” while changes to the 2023 scheme are considered.
“We feel hopeful and optimistic that changes can be made that will meet the needs of private businesses as well as public centers,” he said.
Elsewhere in the GTA, the Region of Peel said 173 of its 194 licensed child care operators have completed an expression of interest in the program so far.
Only 13 had officially completed the paperwork to apply, but a spokesperson told CP24.com last week that the District expects the number of applications to increase significantly as the Sept. 1 deadline approaches.
Meanwhile, in York Region 197 of the 557 licensed centers had officially submitted applications as of last week. Five centers were excluded, all for-profit.
