Ontario parents could wait months for savings due to delayed child-care deal, advocates say

Ontario parents might have to wait months longer than they expected for the discounts and rebates the province promised when it signed the national child-care deal with the Trudeau government in March — as municipalities scramble to implement the required guidelines for local daycare programs.

Jennifer Kotler, a mother of a one-year-old and a two-year-old, says her Toronto daycare hopes to enrol in the program, but she's been told it hasn't been given that option yet. She says she's frustrated the province didn't sign the deal earlier so she could start saving some of the $3,300 a month her family budgets for child care alone.

"It was really frustrating to know that the average person who needs child care could have been helped so much sooner," said Kotler, "and for what I assume are kind of political reasons, that didn't end up happening."

Ontario was the last province to sign onto the federal $10-a-day child-care program, the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement, on Mar. 28. But the provincial government announced it would make early daycare fees cheaper by 25 per cent retroactive to April, and give the rebates starting in May. Experts say that was never realistic given the tight timelines and the delay has left parents like Kotler wondering when they'll see those savings.

Kotler says parents and daycares are stuck looking on as other provinces like Saskatchewan have started rolling out the discounted rates and refunds they pledged when they started signing onto the plan last summer.

"The whole year previously, we could have been saving money and having more affordable child care," Kotler said.

Kotler is not alone in her frustration. The opposition parties at Queen's Park and some child-care advocates also accused Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government of delaying the signing for political reasons.

In January, Education Minister Stephen Lecce responded by saying Ontario was working to get a deal that the province considers fiscally sustainable and fair for families, but that the federal government wasn't offering enough money, among other things.

"We're at the table and we have been for months with the federal government, urging them for a longer term investment, an increased investment and more flexibility to support all families in how they raise their children," Lecce said at the time.

Expecting municipalities and daycares to get a system operating days after Ontario signed the agreement wasn't realistic, Carolyn Ferns, the public policy coordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, told CBC's Metro Morning.

"The ink was barely dry on the agreement," Ferns said.

Municipalities need their child-care programs approved by city councils — which can take weeks, depending on when councils meet and what they decide, says Ferns. And daycare operators need time to review the program once they're given the go-ahead to apply. 

"They want parents to see these discounts, but ... they have to see the details of it before they sign on the dotted line," she said.

Daycares are feeling the immediate impact as they field calls from confused parents wondering where their savings are, says Amy O'Neil, the director of TreeTop Children's Centre, a non-profit daycare operator in Toronto.