In the latest publication from the OCBCC & AECEO’s Policy Brief series, Dr. Gordon Cleveland outlines what a new Ontario child care funding formula should do in order to be successful. It is anticipated that Ontario will release and implement a new child care funding formula in 2024-2025. This brief summarizes what elements should be considered, what options exist, and how to evaluate the efficacy of any new Ontario funding proposal. This brief will help inform the community’s evaluative processes, feedback and further refinements to Ontario’s forthcoming funding approach.

• Policy Brief in PDF (10pp)

Excerpt:

If the Ontario Government wants CWELCC to succeed, it has the capacity to do it. But the child care sector requires:

• fair and adequate revenue stream for child care operators sufficient to cover legitimate child care costs;
• a funding formula that reflects the principles described above and provides certainty for child care operators;a plan to deliver revenues at the beginning of each month or each quarter;
• a plan authorizing municipalities to require centres to produce expenditure and revenue budgets for the forthcoming year and to reconcile these with actual costs and revenues as a means of financial accountability;
• abandonment of Ontario’s wage floor mechanism and replacement with a wage grid centred on providing RECEs with an hourly wage at least $30-40 per hour and equal to the provincial average hourly wage.

The Ministry of Education committed to delivering a sustainable funding model responsive to child care cost structures and supporting the child care system and growth. In order to be successful a new funding model needs to respond to the complexities as outlined in this brief and move us closer to the vision of full and sufficient public funding.