Ninety per cent of Bruce County’s 39 licensed child care sites have opted-in to the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Childcare system.
Bruce County Director of Human Services Christine MacDonald says the county’s children services team is in the process of working with operators to flow out rebates to eligible families.
“These families are going to see a 25 per cent fee reduction, retroactive to April 1,” MacDonald says.
Moving forward, the Ontario government previously communicated the plan for enlisted centres is to move to a 50 per cent fee reduction by Jan. 1, 2023.
MacDonald says the few childcare centres in Bruce County that opted-out did so for “various reasons” but didn’t provide any specific details. Some childcare operations in larger cities had raised concerns about uncertainty of funding past 2023, media reports say.
“Bruce County is continuing to work with all licensed childcare providers in the county to ensure local delivery of childcare is accessible, high quality and inclusive of needs of all children and families,” MacDonald says.
Bruce County Communications Specialist Adam Ferguson says the public childcare portal (OneList) is in the process of being updated to provide information about site participation in the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Childcare system.
MacDonald notes the Bruce County Home Childcare Program — the county’s own licensed home childcare agency — is part of the new fee reduction scheme.
Grey County saw a similar high update into the new system, with 90 per cent of its licensed daycares enlisting ahead of the Nov. 1 deadline.