Ontario’s Auditor General says the province has not met all of the requirements when it signed onto the federal government’s $10 a day childcare program.
A report finds commitments on new spaces and staff have not yet been achieved.
The province received $10.23 billion over five years when it agreed to the federal program.
Auditor General Shelley Spence says while childcare costs have been cut in half since 2022, demand has increased threefold.
“This has made it more difficult for families to find childcare spaces, including those on fee subsidies,” says Spence.
“We found that childcare enrollment decreased by 31% for families eligible for fee subsidies compared to 2019.”
The province had promised to create 86,000 new childcare spaces by 2026.
As of last year, 36,000 new spaces were in place.
Spence also found that some childcare centres consistently operate below capacity, leading to more than 80,000 unoccupied spaces provincewide.
However, the Ministry of Education did not adequately monitor centres to identify the reasons for the vacancies.
She also points out that the program will be about $2 billion short because the province allocated the federal money over four years, instead of five.
Spence says part of the reason may be attributed to higher operating costs than in other parts of Canada.
“They hadn’t done a study to see why it’s so much higher in Ontario versus the other provinces,” says Spence.
“We did look at the ECE (Early Childhood Educator) payments, which are the people who work with the children, and found that we weren’t necessarily the highest there. So, something in the costing and the way it is funded needs to be examined.”
NDP leader Marit Stile says the shortage of childcare spaces hurts families in need.
She says the Ford government needs to invest more.
“They’re paying only 2 % of their share of this child care program. Two percent,” says Stiles.
“I think it’s time that the provincial government actually stepped up and did the right thing here.”
Spence makes eleven recommendations, of which the Ministry has accepted.
The province is in discussions with the federal government to extend the five-year program that concludes at the end of next March.
