Child care may be a little more affordable for Chatham-Kent families for now, but that could change in the near future depending on funding from the Ministry of Education.
A report will go to council Monday evening in regards to the Child Care Affordability Plan, an initiative launched by the municipality and came into effect July 1, 2018.
The plan was launched after the municipality received funding commitments from the provincial and federal governments.
The report highlights that back in 2017, the provincial government made a five-year commitment to support licensed child care providers so that it would be accessible to an additional 100,000 children up to four years old. The federal government also invested funds over the course of three years to increase access to an additional 11,200 children in Ontario.
Of those commitments, the municipality received $1.46 million in 2017 through the Provincial Child Care Expansion and Federal Early Learning and Child Care Agreement (ELCC) funding. The funds were to support the creation of newly licensed care facilities and negate fee increases for child care. The municipality then received $2.29 million through provincial and federal funding in 2018.
Funding from the province is expected to remain the same for the first quarter of 2019, however, exact funding allocations have not been announced. With that in mind, the initiative will remain in place for the first three months of 2019 and will later undergo revaluation.
"Parents with children attending a licensed child care centre operating infant, toddler, preschool, kindergarten, and school-age programs serving children up to 12 years of age who have a funding agreement with the Municipality of Chatham-Kent will see a reduction in their fees from January 1, 2019 to March 31, 2019," the report reads.
Funding beyond March 2019, depends on how much money the municipality is given by the Ministry of Education.
In the meantime, eligible child care operators who have a funding agreement with the municipality and provide care to children up to 12 years old, will give parents a bit of a break in rates.
The total break amounts to $1,726. Depending on the child care space, infants to preschool-aged children will have rates reduced by $10 per day. Meanwhile, children in Kindergarten to 12 years of age will have rates reduced by $5 per day.
