Ontario government successfully extends $10-a-day child care

The Ontario government says it has an important message for families with children in child care.

It says it’s reached an agreement with Ottawa to extend the ten-dollar-a-day child care program.

As parents know, it’s not actually ten-dollar-a-day child care yet.

Right now Ontario parents are paying more like $19 to $22  per day – but the province says parents can count on that for at least another year.

With the child care program far from its goal set when the Trudeau federal government said it “Will bring fees down to $10 a day on average by 2026″ – there were concerns the program wouldn’t be able to keep child care costs under control by the end of its first five years next spring.

Andrea Hannen with the Daycare Operators Association said “ a lot of parents were pretty worried and pretty stressed out that come March they wouldn’t have access to the ten dollar a day program.”

READ MORE: Former CHCH broadcaster Vic Cummings dies at 86

But Ontario has worked out an agreement to keep the program going.

In a letter to parents, Education Minister Paul Calandra says the province has successfully negotiated a “one-year extension of the federal child care program.”

He says it “ensures continuity of the program for the coming year” while “keeping fees at their current average of $19 a day, and a maximum of $22 per day” “until at least Dec. 31, 2026.”

And he says continued discussion with Ottawa “ensures the program’s long-term sustainability.”

Hannen said families who are enrolled in the program are now breathing a sigh of relief.

READ MORE: Blood thinners no longer needed for many with irregular heatbeats, study suggests

“For child care operators it gives a little bit more certainty in terms of funding levels for the coming year, although that all has to be worked out,” she said.

The day care operators say the program is facing challenges like the need for child care space in costly Ontario real estate and operators swamped by bureaucratic government paperwork.

And say that ten-dollar-a-day goal may be difficult to reach.

Ontario’s Better Child Care Coalition says the funding extension should not be the start of breaking the ten-dollar-a-day promise.

Calandra says Ottawa is promising $695 million in addition funding but says that’s not enough to get to ten dollars a day.

Daycare operators say the program isn’t perfect and the government could be doing more consulting with parents and operators.

But for many parents, it makes the difference between whether or not they can go out and work.

READ MORE: Ontario electricity rates increase as cost of living, power needs rise