Child care sector skeptical rebates will start in May as Ontario government announced

When Ontario signed a deal with the federal government to introduce $10-a-day child care, the province said parents would start seeing rebates in May.

TORONTO — When Ontario signed a deal with the federal government to introduce $10-a-day child care, the province said parents would start seeing rebates in May — but with the program still in its early stages, the sector says that’s unlikely to happen.

Municipalities are tasked with handling child-care operators’ applications and allocating funding in their regions, but the money only recently flowed to them and they are still in the process of establishing their own guidelines.

Spokespeople for the Ontario government refused to answer on multiple occasions how many operators had enrolled so far. When asked if the number is zero, they did not directly respond.

“We are putting money back into the pockets of hard-working parents across the province with a reduction of 50 per cent in child care fees this year, down to an average of $10-a-day on average by September 2025,” said a written statement attributed to Stephen Lecce, who struck the deal as education minister in late March.

But in the city of Toronto, the number is indeed zero. A spokeswoman for the city said officials are still in the process of reviewing the province’s guidelines and drafting communications for operators.

Carolyn Ferns, public policy and government relations co-ordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, said that is going to take time.

“It’s probably really frustrating for parents, who were told, really — falsely — when Premier (Doug) Ford signed the agreement that these rebates are going to start flowing in May,” she said.

“But that was never a realistic timeline and they probably should have known that.”