Ontario bans child care wait fees

Education Minister, Mitzie Hunter has announced today that Ontario will no longer allow day care operators to charge parents a fee to put their child on a waiting list as of September.

Hunter says the ban on what she calls unfair fees and deposits will apply to licensed child care centres and home child care agencies.

Ontario will be the first province to ban wait list fees for child care.

Child care providers have until January 1, 2017 to develop a public wait list that clearly explains how children on the list are offered a spot.

The wait list will be made available to families while at the same time protecting the privacy of other personal information.

The province spends over $1 billion a year on child care and has more than 350 thousand licensed child care spaces.