Grey County has officially met its revised target for new child care spaces under the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program, but without new operating funds, future expansion will have to wait.
Ontario signed on to the federal CWELCC agreement with a commitment to reduce average child care fees to $12 a day by 2026. As part of this, Grey County was initially allocated 644 new licensed spaces to be created by that deadline. However, a province-wide review this spring saw Grey’s target cut to 515 spaces, with more resources redirected to higher-growth areas elsewhere in Ontario.
County staff confirmed this week that Grey has now met that revised goal. While this is positive news for families currently in care, it also means the County can’t approve additional child care growth without further provincial operating funds.
At the same time, Grey County received $2.27 million in start-up and infrastructure grants earmarked for new non-profit spaces. However, CAO Randy Scherzer said no new operating dollars were attached to that funding. So with the local space creation target already met, those funds remain unused for now.
"There's a disconnect we see, obviously, between the reduction in the childcare spaces but the increase in funding," Scherzer explained. "And from a capital perspective, we can advance some of those projects using capital dollars if we had the spaces allocated to us."
The County’s CWELCC operating budget was also reduced by over $700,000 to reflect the lower target. While this remains enough to support current commitments, staff are now reviewing whether it will be sustainable if all child care centres operate at full licensed capacity.
Scherzer pointed out that the county will be talking to other levels of government about the issue.
"And provide this information both to the provincial Ministry of Education as well as the Federal Ministry of Jobs and Families, and to also share with our local MPs and our local MPPs," he said. "Just to reiterate and reinforce the concern about losing the spaces that are desperately needed here in Grey County."
The message will highlight local growth pressures and the potential impact of the revised targets and funding reductions on families and licensed child care providers in Grey.
"This is, this is truly about being able to move forward with workforce retention and attraction, and if we don't have adequate childcare spaces, then that's going to be affecting our pipeline, from a workforce perspective," he revealed. "So we need those childcare spaces as our communities continue to grow, and so with the reduction, it just puts us further back."
The current CWELCC agreement is scheduled to run until 2026.