‘It’s unsustainable’: Parents lament fallout of funding changes to daycare program

Andrew Bartucci is one of many parents grappling with the possibility that their childcare costs could soar in the new year after daycare operators warned upcoming funding changes could force many to pull out of the national $10-a-day program.

CityNews obtained letters from three daycares in the GTA all citing ongoing challenges with the program and concerns with the new funding framework starting in January.

Bartucci says his High Park daycare operator warned that if it does decide to withdraw from the program, fees could rise by more than 50 per cent.

“So with two children in daycare and one being an infant, it’s going to be closer to like, I predict $4,300 or $4,500 a month,” explained Bartucci. “It’s unsustainable, it’s unimaginable.”

“This is an existential crisis for us, we can’t do it and it’s happening to families everywhere that I’m talking to it’s not just us. Everyone who’s received a letter from various daycares is saying the same thing …There needs to be a fix.” 

Jacky Sheppard with the Private Operators Group tells CityNews dozens of commercial daycares across Ontario are considering opting out as the funding framework is about to shift from revenue-based to cost-based. 

“Now that cost-based funding then will have severe restrictions wrapped around it so we won’t have any allowance to spend as we’ve been spending it, running our schools very successfully I might say for years and years and years,” she said.  

The Minister of Education says she has been speaking with daycare providers, parents and her federal counterparts about these issues and tells CityNews in a statement, “Ottawa must provide more funding, lift the cap on for-profit providers, and give more flexibility so that providers can cover their costs and create necessary spaces for parents.”

Meanwhile, many families like Bartucci’s are looking for a plan B just in case, adding if this happens his wife may be forced to leave her job.

“You’re becoming one of hundreds on a list everywhere, all the centers – we reached out to one center and they said don’t even bother because you’re so far down the list, your child will be well into elementary school by the time you get a spot,” he said.

Ontario’s deal with the federal government to join the $10-a-day program committed the province to create 86,000 new child-care spaces. But, so far, while there have been about 51,000 new spaces, only 25,500 of those are within the $10-a-day system, officials say.

In Toronto 87 percent of city’s 1,068 licenced daycares have opted into the national $10-a-day program – eight have since withdrawn.

The province says a federal cap on the percentage of for-profit spaces within the system is hampering growth, as municipalities are having to turn down applications for thousands of potential spaces because they are created by for-profit operators.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report