Toronto's Child Care System
Overview of children and families in Toronto
Overview of the child care system in Toronto
Funding of child care services

The Current Child Care Environment
Federal government
Provincial government
City of Toronto
Progress since last service plan
Current service issues

Setting Directions
Improving quality of services
Developing a system of services for children and families
Access and equity
Building public support for child care

Appendices
Appendix A - Toronto Children's Strategy
Appendix B - Public consultation
Appendix C - Children living in low-income families (map)
Appendix D - Client data
Appendix E - Provincial subsidy 2001 - 2005
Appendix F - Principles for the allocation of funding from the Child Care Capital Reserve Fund
Appendix G - Access to special needs resourcing (map)

Executive Summary

The 2005 - 2009 Child Care Service Plan is the City's third service plan since 1993. This new child care plan builds on the progress achieved to date, and provides direction that builds on a renewed interest in early learning and child care. The 2005 - 2009 Child Care Service Plan provides an important next step in the City's move towards integrated planning and delivery of services for young children and families.

Toronto's Child Care Service Plan builds on historical principles approved by Council and the City's Children's Strategy, and proposes a five-year action plan to guide the management of the child care system. The 2005 - 2009 plan proposes specific directions to address quality, access and equity, developing a system of services for children, and building public support for child care. The plan includes service system management strategies that address current and future planning to meet the goals of a National Strategy for Early Learning and Care, as well as the provincial Best Start strategy.

The Child Care Service Plan identifies the future work planned or already underway to address some of the challenges and future funding initiatives facing the child care system in the City. It also helps set a research agenda by identifying important issues and evaluative studies that can lead to improved service quality, efficiency and equity.

The principles and policies adopted by Council to provide a framework for the 2005 - 2009 Child Care Service Plan are:

• service access equity
• publicly planned and accountable service outcomes
• service options consistent with informed parental choice
• first-come, first-service admission to subsidized care
• recognition that child care services provide developmentally appropriate and beneficial care for children as well as important family and community support
• recognition that services for children and families should be planned and delivered in an integrated way that promotes seamless service transitions.

• Improving quality of services
• Developing a system of services for children
• Access and equity
• Building public support for child care.

Recommendations - Improving quality of services

1. By 2006, the City will develop a strategy that restores funding in support of quality child care.
2. The City will continue to champion high standards and improve quality through continued use and validation of the Operating Criteria for all child care programs, including in-home child care, special needs resourcing and family resource centres.
3. Children’s Services, by 2007, will make available the results of site evaluation reports to parents, and actively plan with operators for service improvements to exceed the minimum standards.
4. The Operating Criteria will be refined based on current research and best practice, and become a continuous improvement tool to direct future changes.
5. The City, with its partners, will continue to develop a comprehensive system of supports to children with special needs. This system will include a variety of supports including specialized services, one-to-one supports, improved ratios, and staff training requirements.
6. The City will direct future resources to promote, expand and sustain inclusive environments by achieving service growth that reflects the population of children with special needs.
7. The City will explore the option of implementing a home child care provider accreditation program in Toronto as a complementary practice to using the Operating Criteria for Home Child Care.

Recommendations – Developing a system of services for children

1. The City will ensure planning for integrated services for children from birth to age 12 is based on the principle of access equity.
2. The City will consider the experiences of Toronto First Duty as it develops options to expand and integrate early learning and care.
3. In response to the lack of funding support for school-age child care, the City will develop a strategy that will allow for new services needed to accommodate children making transitions from the expanded kindergarten programs by the 2007/08 school year. The development will be in consultation with community partners, including Boards of Education and Toronto Parks and Recreation.

Recommendations - Access and equity

1. The City will ensure equitable access for all children by developing a range of programs and services, including part-time options, and by actively pursuing development in communities that are under-served.
2. The City's capital strategy will target capital investment for expansion and growth following the principles of geographic and age equity, targeting under-served age groups and areas, as well as high-needs areas, and where possible build on joint investment and co-location of service.
3. Capital and operating funding for new programs will be contingent on programs being inclusive.
4. Service growth will occur in the not-for-profit and public sector.
5. The City will continue to work to rationalize family resource programs in the future.
6. The City will advocate with the Province for improvements to child care subsidy requirements to remove barriers to access.
7. The City will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the Home Child Care rate structure to improve fair and equitable access for children of all age groups to quality home child care experiences.

Recommendations - Building public support for child care

1. The City will continue to develop, implement and sustain a comprehensive public communication strategy to ensure that the public becomes better informed about the long-term social, economic and financial benefits of child care.
2. The City will continue to champion the needs of children and families.

Introduction

In a recent report to Council on strategies to deliver a universal child care system, the Division identified that licensed child care would need to almost triple from the current 50,000 licensed spaces to over 135,000 licensed child care spaces to meet the needs of the current child population. Further, to provide equitable access for families in financial need, the number of child care fee subsidy spaces would need to more than double from the current level of 22,745 to almost 50,000.

Since the last service plan, the number of child care fee subsidy spaces in Toronto has been reduced by over 1,800 spaces. Years of stagnant funding, in the face of continually rising costs, lead to service level reductions. As a result, the percentage of the licensed system that is subsidized has actually decreased since the last service plan. Further, changes to eligibility requirements for child care fee subsidy left many families ineligible and resulted in reduced wait-lists for child care fee subsidy, and subsequently prevented access to children who would benefit from developmental programs. Recent provincial announcements concerning the treatment of RRSPs and RESPs have resulted in improved access for many families. As a result, waiting lists are again beginning to rise.

Of the 22,745 child care fees subsidy spaces, 78% are used by lone-parent families, and 29% of subsidized spaces are used by children of Ontario Works recipients. The largest client group for subsidized child care (27%) is a lone-parent family with one child, where the parent is employed and has an average net annual income of $20,425. The average child care cost of $32.48 is well beyond the reach of this family and their average subsidy fee is $5.92 (see appendix D) for more information about Children’s Services clients).

In addition to a lack of licensed child care fee subsidies, the system continues to struggle with equitable access to fee subsidy across the municipality. A number of distinct client groups including families with infants, families with children with special needs and aboriginal families continue to face challenges in accessing the child care system.

Overview of the child care system in Toronto
The child care system includes licensed centre-based and home child care, family resource programs, special needs resourcing, before- and after-school programs, and summer day programs. To achieve its service goals, the City funds 995 services, as outlined in the chart below:

Licensed child care
The licensed child care system in Toronto provides approximately 50,000 spaces, with over 33,000 dedicated to children below the age of six. The care is delivered through 845 child care centres and 22 licensed home child care agencies.

The majority of the child care centres are operated by non-profit organizations, while about 24% are commercial; the City of Toronto operates 57 municipal child care centres and one home child care agency.

Over 70% of child care operators have a service contract with the City and receive some government funding in the form of fee and/or wage subsidies. The level of funding varies. The following chart describes the number of child care centres with a subsidy agreement by type and shows the number of child care spaces that are subsidized.

The following chart outlines the numbers of commercial and not-for-profit centres that do not have a fee subsidy agreement with the City.

There are 22 licensed home child care agencies that serve the City of Toronto, 11 of which have subsidy agreements. Thirteen percent (2,960) of all subsidized spaces are used in home child care. Nine percent are used by infants, 11% are toddlers, 39% are pre-school, and 41% are used by school-aged children.

Family resource centres
The Ministry’s Child Care Management Guidelines and the Family Resource Centre Policy (1994) identify core services that may be funded in a family resource centre: child care registry, warm-line, drop-in, playgroup, toy lending library and caregiver education. Centres are contracted by the City to provide one or more of these services to families.

Family resource centres receive funding from a variety of sources, including all levels of government in addition to the United Way and local grants and fundraising. Not all the municipal funding of resource centres is cost-shared with the Province. Additional funding has been made available to provide services not eligible for cost-sharing or to enhance the core services. Services funded without provincial contribution include outreach and community development.

In June 2003, Ontario Early Years Centres (OEYCs) were opened in the 22 provincial ridings in Toronto. These centres are 100% provincially funded. The opening of the OEYCs had a direct impact on the family resource centres in Toronto. Prior to their opening, there were 34 cost-shared agencies providing family resource programs. By the end of the OEYC planning process, 11 of these organizations had been designated as lead agencies and became OEYCs in specific ridings. Six continue to have a contract with the City, and five had their contract with the City terminated. The remaining 23 cost-shared agencies providing family resource programs have been designated as unique satellites and continue in their service contracts with the City. These have retained their historic identity, governance structure and cost-shared funding.

The City continues to perform its service system manager role for child care. Family resource centres that have been designated as unique satellites remain part of that system. However, the Province assumed responsibility as the service system manager for the new OEYCs. This separation of OEYC from the rest of the child care system continues to present a challenge to integrating early learning and care programs.

Special needs resourcing
The delivery of specialized support services varies. Services may, for example, be provided through specialized licensed nursery schools where services tend to be more intensive and use highly specialized staff such as occupational therapists and physiotherapists. Or specifically designated providers may be contracted by the agency to provide care to children with special needs in a home child care setting. Most specialized services are provided through a consultation model. Within a larger children’s mental health organization or developmental service agency, funds are provided to hire staff to provide consultation services both client-specific and general to the child care sector. This model of service delivery is consistent with the direction of other municipalities.

York Before and After School programs
In 2000, the City of Toronto entered into a partnership with the Toronto District School Board and 21 programs in the former City of York to provide up to $400,000 for before- and after-school programs during the 2000 – 2001 school year. The School Board previously funded these programs, but due to changes in the Province’s education funding formula, was unable to continue funding beyond June 2001. The municipal contribution was to end at the same time, but City Council has voted to extend its participation. Although in 2001, 733 children were enrolled in these programs, in 2005 fewer than 400 children were enrolled.

Summer day programs
These unlicensed programs operate during the summer for eight weeks or less, and are generally offered to school-age children. The programs usually operate in high-needs areas, are recreationally based and operate for a full day. The City along with other funders provides program funding to agencies to operate programs, allowing them to set a nominal fee to participate. Families therefore do not require fee assistance from the City. Summer day programs are currently not cost-shared with the Province.

Funding of child care services
Toronto Council has allocated $283 million within the Children’s Services 2005 operating budget to operate its child care system. The funding responsibility is shared between the Province, the City and subsidized child care users. Toronto Children’s Services manages the range of services described in the previous section in accordance with provincial legislation and policy as well as with the policies laid out by Toronto City Council. In addition to the requirements of the Day Nurseries Act (DNA), the City must meet the requirements of the Provincial Child Care Service Management Guidelines. City of Toronto policies, approved by Council, guide public expenditures on child care. These policies include the Service Plan for Child Care, 2001, Operating Criteria for Child Care Programs, and Operating Budget Guidelines and are designed to ensure that high quality, financially viable services are delivered equitably throughout the city in a way that maximizes the use of public funds. Children’s services programs that meet the requirements of the Service Plan, Operating Criteria and financial requirements may enter into a service contract with the City.

The Province funds up to a predetermined ceiling:
(see appendix E)

• 80% of the net cost of “prescribed services” not including administration
• regular child care subsidies
• Ontario Works (OW) subsidies, for licensed and informal child care
• family resource programs (up to a pre-determined ceiling)
• special needs resourcing
• wage subsidy (paid to nonprofit and commercial operators, including licensed child care, special needs resourcing and family resource programs)
• health and safety expenditures
• 50% of approved administrative costs (not including OW administration).

The City funds:

• 20% of the net cost of “prescribed services” not including administration
• 50% of approved administrative costs
• 100% of any costs not approved through a negotiated service contract or costs above the approved level even if eligible for cost sharing. Currently these include:
  • school occupancy costs
  • solid waste management fees
  • summer day programs
  • Child Care Capital Reserve Fund
  • funding for family resource programs or services
  • the York Before and After School program
  • additional child care spaces
  • Toronto First Duty project.

Fees collected from child care users accounted for approximately $17.7 million in 2004. User fees are subtracted from the total eligible expenditures to determine the net amount to be cost-shared between the Province and the City. Approximately 6% of the overall system cost is funded from user fees.

Subsidized clients are assessed fees according to a provincially mandated needs test and a municipally mandated income test. The higher of the two fees applies. The formula that is used to compute the income-based user fee consists of a basic exemption based on family size and a tax back of 27% of all net (after tax) income above that. There is no minimum user fee assessed against any client. Currently, approximately 56% of subsidized families pay no user fees. At the same time, about 10% of all subsidized families, those with income over $30,000, generate almost one half of all the user revenue. The Province has announced its intention to move to a sliding scale for child care fees subsidy based on an income test. Although the details of this are not yet known, it is anticipated that families with net incomes under $25,000 will pay no user fees. Without full details, it is difficult to estimate the impact of the proposed change on the overall funding structure. However, for the existing direct base, the change will result in savings of over $11 million, with the difference having to be made up by additional government funding or corresponding service level adjustments.

The development of the service plan comes at a time of renewed interest in early learning and child care. After more than a decade of inadequate funding, both the federal and provincial governments have made recent announcements promising new investment in early learning and care. At the City level, a number of new initiatives address issues related to children. These changes will have a direct impact on child care services in Toronto. These changes will help restore stability and quality to the child care system, and will allow for future growth and expansion to meet the needs of children in Toronto.

Federal government
The Multilateral Framework on Early Learning and Child Care builds on the earlier agreement reached between federal, provincial and territorial governments on early childhood development, and is intended to guide new investments in regulated early learning and child care programs for children under age 6. The prime objective of the new agreement is to further promote early childhood development and support the participation of parents in employment or training by improving access to affordable, quality early learning and child care. Federal/provincial/territorial ministers responsible for social services agreed to the Multilateral Framework in March 2003.

The 2005 Federal budget announced the development of a national Early Learning and Child Care initiative:

• $5 billion will be spent nationally over the next five years with Ontario’s share being $271.6 million in the first year and growing to $446.2 million in year three
• depending on the method used to calculate Toronto’s share, it is expected that the City of Toronto will receive between $48.9 million and $64.2 million in year one; growing to between $97.7 million and $128.5 million in year five
• the initiative will be guided by four key principles: quality, universally inclusive, accessible and developmental
• in the 2005 budget year, $700 million will be paid into a third-party trust. The provinces will have the flexibility to draw on these funds on a per capita basis as needed up to the end of 2005 – 06, while a framework for quality programs and services across the country is developed.

Provincial government
On November 25, 2004, The Hon. Marie Bountrogianni, Ontario’s Minister of Children and Youth Services, announced a series of initiatives to support children’s services in Ontario. Some of these include:

• allowing parents with Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP) and Registered Education Savings Plans (RESP) to receive child care subsidy if they otherwise quality. RRSP/RESP’s will no longer be counted as liquid assets, and contributions up to federal allowable maximums will be counted as expenditures when assessing eligibility for subsidy
• improving access to child care subsidy by providing municipalities with greater flexibility in determining the amount of child care a subsidy may be provided for. Consolidated Municipal Service Managers are able to consider both the needs of children and parents in determining hours of care
• a new income test method of assessing eligibility for subsidy that would see families with incomes under $25,000 a year at full subsidy, families earning between $25,000 and $75,000 paying according to a sliding scale, and families earning over $75,000 at full fee (Toronto already uses an income test; most other municipalities do not)
• establishing a College of Early Childhood Educators to set professional standards in the field
• adding $8.3 million to support Healthy Babies Healthy Children
• adding $4.7 million to the Preschool Speech and Language Program
• adding $1.2 million to the Infant Hearing Program to help children with language and hearing disorders.

The announcement also discussed future directions for the Province’s promised early learning and child care program known as Best Start. Best Start is a 10-year plan for early learning and care. The Province will use the available funding from the federal government’s Early Learning and Child Care Initiative to implement the Best Start strategy.

The first expansion priority will be “to provide a full day of learning and child care for four- and five-year-olds.” This means greatly expanding the numbers of subsidies and spaces for child care wrapped around Junior and Senior Kindergarten. Capital funding of 100% may be used for nonprofit (and presumably, municipally-operated) child care. The announced long-term vision (over the next 10 – 15 years) is to extend the program so that it is available to all children aged 2.5 years and up.

According to new provincial policy guidelines, the Province has committed to:

• 100% provincial funding (i.e., a “holiday” on the municipal 20% contribution) for the new child care spaces for at least the first year
• creating three advisory panels on the topics of: early learning and curriculum, quality and human resources, and a universal well-baby screening at 18 months of age.

The Ministry has designated that municipalities in their role as CMSMs lead the establishment of Best Start Networks. The Best Start Network is responsible for planning and implementing Best Start in communities. Because Best Start is a strategy that integrates services funded by a number of ministries and provided by a variety of service providers, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services has specified the organizations that should be part of the network. Key service areas such as school programs, early identification and intervention programs, health and specialized services, early learning programs, parenting programs, population-specific services, income and security programs and parents are to be included in the Best Start Network.

In Phase 1 of Best Start Planning, the Best Start Network must complete three tasks by the end of 2005. The first task is to form the Best Start Network and develop its terms of reference. The second deliverable is to develop a plan to increase licensed child care spaces for children in Junior and Senior Kindergarten. The responsibility for this task rests with the municipality as Service System Manager for Child Care. The Best Start Network will provide valuable support in identifying opportunities to expand child care in existing community space. Finally, the Best Start Network will be asked to lay out a longer-term plan to implement early learning and care hubs.

City of Toronto
Community engagement is a priority for the City of Toronto. The Roundtable on Children, Youth and Education was established for the 2003 – 2006 term of Council and will conclude at the end of term. The purpose of the Roundtable is to provide advice to the Mayor and Council and to engage the community on policies, programs, strategies and actions that will demonstrably improve the well-being of children and youth in the City of Toronto.

The Roundtable established two working groups: a Children’s Working Group and a Youth Working Group. With direction from the Roundtable, the Children’s Working Group will develop a plan for accomplishing integrated children’s services in Toronto. The group will report to City Council giving recommendations on how to achieve integrated services for children in the City of Toronto.

In addition, during consideration of the Children’s Report Card, Council directed City staff to report back on strategies to improve the outcomes of children living in poverty. An interdepartmental staff team from all the divisions that deliver services for children, including Children’s Services, Toronto Public Health, Toronto Public Library, Social Services, Parks and Recreation and Shelter, Housing and Support has been working with Early Development Instrument outcomes and is expected to report back to Council on the use of benchmarks in promoting positive outcomes for children. The group is also working alongside the Children’s Working Group of the Mayor’s Roundtable on Children, Youth and Education of the plan for integrating services for children in Toronto.

Toronto First Duty is another City initiative working towards integrating services for families and children. Toronto First Duty is demonstrating how existing early childhood and family programs can be transformed from the current patchwork into a single service, meeting the needs of families and children from prenatal to age six. Service integration provides the foundation for new public investments to build a system of early learning, child care and family supports available to every child. By piloting service integration, Toronto First Duty will provide governments with a detailed policy tool.

Toronto First Duty’s vision and goals are similar to Best Start’s vision of a seamless system of support for children 0 – 6 years and their families. Toronto First Duty, even before completion, provides valuable information for planning the expansion of early years services.

Progress since last service plan
The Child Care Service Plan 2001 addressed areas of diversity, integration, accountability, actual costs and improving equity of access. Since the last service plan, the City has made some progress towards achieving the goals of the plan.

Meeting diverse needs
The City of Toronto is a multicultural community that is continually changing and renewing itself. Despite the ever-growing variety of ethno-cultural backgrounds, the basic developmental needs of children and the support of their parents are essentially the same. A number of workshops and community initiatives have been developed and delivered over the past few years. Some of these include:

• War Echoes – workshop in response to emerging world issues
• conference on inclusion
• inclusion workshops and training opportunities
• agreements between the City and both French Language School Boards and a growth in the number of Francophone child care programs.

Inclusion
Families with children with special needs face additional challenges while trying to meet their children’s developmental and child care needs. The Toronto child care community has traditionally envisioned a child care system that is accessible to all children and that benefits the development of these children regardless of their needs. Since the last service plan, the City has responded with a model for supporting children with special needs. The City is moving forward in restructuring the community-based system to achieve a more rationalized system of support for child care that is equitably distributed across the city. Special Needs Resource staff have been assigned a group of child care centres within a specified geographic area. This ensures that programs that serve children with special needs have consistent support, and helps build overall capacity. In addition, mandatory requirements are now embedded in the City’s Operating Criteria that ensure programs are inclusive.

Integration
The City has made considerable progress in the area of integration. In the past, different child care sectors operated in isolation, reflecting their individual mandates and points of view. Since the last service plan, policy and funding approaches have shifted to support a more holistic approach to planning and service delivery. The City, through the Roundtable on Children, Youth and Education has moved towards developing a shared vision of an integrated early learning and care system. Various models of integration continue to be explored and Children’s Services continues to promote and improve service co-operation and integration through various activities:

• the Mayor’s Roundtable on Children, Youth and Education is developing a plan for integrating services for children in Toronto
• an interdepartmental staff team with representation from several City divisions is developing strategies to improve outcomes for children and advancing joint planning initiatives between City departments
• Toronto First Duty combines child care, kindergarten and parenting supports, into a single accessible service for children
• The Toronto Report Card on Children reports on the health and well-being of the city’s children, is a collaborative effort between the City and community partners
• Get Your Move On, aimed at increasing physical activity levels, is an integrated approach to supporting physical activity for children in child care, family resource programs, recreation and education
• Family Portal – a single access point to services for families and children on the City of Toronto’s website.

Promoting and ensuring accountability
Since the last service plan, Toronto Children’s Services has sought a continuous improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of child care services. As a result of the 2001 service plan, the division already has in place many mechanisms to ensure that service in the licensed child care sector is as efficient as possible. The development of financial criteria has ensured financial accountability for funded service providers. Toronto Children’s Services has also embarked on a reorganization of the division to:

• support both local planning and service delivery
• promote local integrated teams and service management
• provide appropriate centralized support and expertise
• align the division’s structure with the political boundaries of the City of Toronto
• respond to changing funding priorities.

Actual costs of child care programs
The effectiveness and efficiency of programs cannot be evaluated without addressing the adequacy of funding. The Child Care Service Plan 2001 made a commitment to a multi-year plan for return to payment of actual costs. Over the past several years, the City made payments towards actual costs at the expense of child care service levels. As a result of the Multilateral Framework on Early Learning and Child Care, the City was able to stabilize the existing child care system by paying child care operators their actual 2004 costs and prevent service loss of up to 1,300 child care subsidized spaces. However, achieving 2004 actual costs came after a decade of severe financial restraint which left child care programs with reduced levels of trained staff and an increase in the number of qualified staff working part-time hours.

Improving equity of access to child care services
Achieving age and geographic equity continues to be a goal of the City. Since the last service plan some progress has been made. A 6% increase in the number of infants served has been achieved, and equity for toddlers has been achieved in several wards of the City.

Since 2001, the capacity of Toronto’s child care system has grown by 15%. The City’s capital strategy to support child care development is built on a variety of tools, including capital investment and interest-free loans from the Child Care Capital Reserve Fund, loan guarantees and funding secured through Section 37 and development agreements. Since the last service plan, capital invested by the City has contributed to this growth through the development of 258 spaces. The City’s commitment to support capital development is expected to move the system closer towards equity of access, and funding expected through the Provincial Best Start Plan will allow for significant major capital investment. Limited minor capital funding through the second year of funding from the Multilateral Agreement will result in the growth of 696 child care spaces (see appendix F).

The stagnant funding of the last five years has limited the City’s ability to ensure equitable access to child care programs and subsidies across Toronto. The situation has been further compounded by lack of capital funds to develop new child care spaces in the traditionally under-served areas. The charts below demonstrate the gap in equity of access to fee subsidy.

(for a larger view, please click on the image)

(for a larger view, please click on the image)

In addition to the challenge of geographic and age equity, the current funding model makes it impractical to deliver services supporting families with non-standard hours of work although potential demand remains high. Also, services for children with special needs are not equitably distributed across the city, and clients often travel significant distances for child care supports (see appendix G).

To meet the City’s equity goals, it will be necessary to provide a substantial investment to grow the child care system infrastructure. Funding must also allow for improving levels of trained staff and recognize the need for additional fully trained, adequately compensated ECE staff, particularly in areas of high need.

Current service issues
Over the past year, the City asked the Province to stabilize the child care system first and then build a reformed system. Although the new funding secured through the Multilateral Agreement has provided a first step towards stability, it is critical that future funding flexibility is secured to allow the City to meet its 2005 – 2009 service plan goals. City Council has directed that future funding must consider the following six-point action plan for building a national Early Learning and Child Care system (ELCC), as endorsed by the Children’s Working Group of the Children, Youth and Education Roundtable:

• moving from the current user pay and subsidy system to publicly funded programs, as in Quebec and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries
• introducing standards that guarantee quality, universally accessible, developmental, inclusive programming like the Canada Health Act, the principles of child care needs to be enshrined in legislation
• maintaining existing federal commitments (Canada Social Transfer, Early Childhood Development Initiative and Multilateral Framework Agreement funding)
• dedicating a separate, adequate, designated funding stream for a new, long-term federal transfer to provinces and territories
• agreeing that all expansion takes place through public and/or not-for-profit delivery, and existing for-profit programs may be grand-parented
• including provincial and territorial accountability, tied to five-year plans that include goals and objectives, timelines and targets, review and evaluation, as they build new ELCC system.

The Best Start Plan will provide children and families with access to a range of seamless services to support learning and care, student success and parental support, regardless of income. There is some movement towards improving access and equity through the move from the needs test to an income test in determining the level of fee subsidy for individual families. Toronto Children’s Services will analyze the impact on the families currently in receipt of child care fee subsidy. While Best Start will increase child care service to four- and five-year-olds, the City has built its care system for children from birth to 12 based on principles of geographic and age equity. To provide every City ward with sufficient child care fee subsidy to serve 50% of eligible children, the number of child care subsidy spaces would need to be increased by an estimated 22,000 at a cost of $200 million in provincial funding and $50 million in municipal funding. The City’s service plan has long held the principle that growth in the child care system must be preceded by addressing equity of access.

The availability of space to house new child care services may be an issue. In addition, the City currently pays the occupancy costs (not cost shared) of school-based child care centres for a projected total of $5.3 million in 2005. There will be a need to adjust this arrangement in some way to ensure that the City does not have an increased financial obligation in this regard, and is able to treat all the school-based programs equitably where occupancy costs are concerned.

The inability to allocate any of the Early Learning and Care funding to the stabilization of the services to school-age children and to family resource programs also represents a significant challenge.

Each sector also faces its own particular challenges. The home child care sector, for example, identified the need to co-ordinate caregiver support with other sectors providing similar services to ensure that at a local level, services are integrated to maximize opportunities for caregivers. This group also identified the need to review the adequacy of provider payments to reflect training received and hours of care. While the City works with the community to determine options for the distribution of wage subsidy, any surpluses in the system will be reserved to support age and geographic equity in accordance with the service plan.

The future funding and distribution of wage subsidy is another issue that continues to be of interest to most service providers in Toronto. While the City continues to look at options for the distribution of wage subsidy, any surpluses in the system will continue to be re-allocated towards improving age and geographic equity in accordance with the service plan.

Aboriginal and Francophone children make up a small percentage of the child population, 0.6% and 1.4% respectively. These communities face particular barriers in gaining access to service. There are only two child care centres in the City (both with fee subsidy agreements) that are dedicated to the developmental and care needs of the Aboriginal community. The 75 available spaces allow only 4% of Aboriginal children access to service. While there are 14 child care centres (nine with fee subsidies) which provide service to the Francophone community, this population is so widely dispersed that accessing the available services is difficult. Finally, finding culturally and linguistically appropriate supports for Aboriginal and Francophone children with special needs continues to be a challenge.

Although a full year of funding from the Multilateral Framework is sufficient for the City to achieve the goals of expanding and stabilizing the child care system, future funding allocations must recognize the impact of ongoing inflationary pressures to avoid destabilizing the system. As well, future funding must address the needs to support the entire system of services. Over the next two years, as provincial funding increases to the level where cost-sharing is fully restored to the legislated 80/20 ratio, targeting funding to 0 – 6 will prevent the City from addressing the needs of school-age service providers and family resource centres.

Setting Directions

The 2005 – 2009 Child Care Service Plan sets directions to guide the child care system over a period of time and form the framework for service planning and resource allocation over the next five-year period. The proposed directions can be grouped under four categories outlined below:

• Improving quality of services
• Developing a system of services for children
• Access and equity
• Building public support for child care

Improving quality of services
The City of Toronto, through the service plan is committed to working to ensure that all Toronto children are entitled, if their parents choose, to participate in high-quality child care/early-education programs designed to meet best interests of the child. Children’s Services will continue the commitment to an inclusive high-quality child care system with an emphasis on quality. A program of good quality is designed to meet and enhance an individual child’s development by focusing on their interests, needs and strengths. The quality assurance measures set out in the Operating Criteria promote quality, respect for diversity and parental involvement. Child care researchers believe that child care contributes to children’s developmental outcomes, and associate higher quality care with better developmental outcomes. The City will continue to champion high standards and improve quality through continued use and validation of the Operating Criteria for all child care programs including in-home care, special needs resourcing and family resource centres. The Operating Criteria will be refined based on current research and best practice, and will serve as a continuous improvement tool to direct further changes.

Recommendations – Improving quality of services

1. By 2006, the City will develop a strategy that restores funding in support of quality child care.
2. The City will continue to champion high standards and improved quality through continued use and validation of the Operating Criteria for all child care programs, including in-home child care, special needs resourcing and family resource centres.
3. Children’s Services, by 2007, will make available the results of site evaluation reports to parents, and actively plan with operators for service improvements to exceed the minimum standards.
4. The Operating Criteria will be refined based on current research and best practice, and become a continuous improvement tool to direct future changes.
5. The City, with its partners, will continue to develop a comprehensive system to support children with special needs. This system will include a variety of supports including specialized services, one-to-one supports, improved ratios and staff training requirements.
6. The City will direct future resources to promote, expand and sustain inclusive environments by achieving service growth that reflects the population of children with special needs.
7. The City will explore the option of implementing a home child care provider accreditation program in Toronto as a complementary practice to using the Operating Criteria for Home Child Care.

Developing a system of services for children and families
Toronto’s service planning process is designed to meet the needs of families by building on community partnerships and promoting opportunities to consolidate a patchwork of children’s services into one comprehensive service delivery system.

Families and children benefit from access to a full range of quality services that meet their developmental care needs. The City’s Children’s Strategy, approved by Council in 1999, identifies the key components of an integrated system as:

• The City demands a holistic as opposed to a sectoral or program response to issues affecting children’s well-being.
• The City promotes both equity of access and responsive service approaches to children through integrated service planning at the neighbourhood level.
• The City builds and strengthens local community partnerships and negotiates the fullest and most prudent use of shared resources.

The City of Toronto, through the local service planning process and its operating polices and practices, will ensure that existing and new services reflect the principles of the Children’s Strategy. Renewed interest in the early years and child care has created the platform to support the development of an integrated service system. Recent federal initiatives including the Multilateral Framework Agreement on Early Learning and Child Care, the Early Childhood Development Initiative, and commitment to spending $5 billion on a national Early Learning and Child Care program coupled with the provincial Best Start program demonstrate the importance of a system of services. The City, by establishing the Mayor’s Roundtable on Children, Youth and Education, is taking a leadership role in developing a plan for an integrated system of early learning and child care services.

The City is committed to the stability of the existing child care system for children from birth to age 12. Although for the first time in over a decade new funding is available to support child care, funds targeted to specific age groups will present a challenge to overall system stability. Currently the multilateral funding from the federal government does not support additional expenditure or expansion of care for school-age children. Best Start’s emphasis on funding service growth for four- and five-year-olds makes the dilemma worse. To address the lack of funding for school-age children, the City must work with community partners to develop services that integrate licensed school-age care and other services such as recreation.

Progress has been made in strengthening planning processes with school boards, Parks and Recreation, Libraries and Public Health to ensure that all investments in programs for children and families are planned and connected in a holistic way. Various models of integration continue to be explored through the Toronto First Duty project. The project’s significant evaluation component and its impact on children, family and community outcomes continue to affect future service delivery strategies.

Recommendations – Developing a system of services for children

1. The City will ensure planning for integrated services for children from birth to age 12 is based on the principle of equity of access.
2. The City will consider the experiences of Toronto First Duty as it develops options to expand and integrate early learning and care.
3. In response to the lack of funding support for school-age child care, the City will develop a strategy that will allow for new services needed to accommodate children making transitions from the expanded kindergarten programs by the 2007/08 school year. The development will be in consultation with community partners, including boards of education and Toronto Parks and Recreation.

Access and equity
Toronto's commitment to equitable access to services has been a core directive since the adoption of the Children’s Strategy and Service Planning Guidelines in 1999. The City’s focus has been not only on equitably allocating resources, but also on achieving equitable outcomes for children.

Even though gains have been made, after more than five years of action, true equity remains elusive, and resources and services continue to be distributed unevenly across the city. In 2005, the City will emerge from more than a decade of inadequate funding. The opportunity to improve access and equity through service growth in areas of the city that are most under-served is now a reality. The City must continue to advocate for funding flexibility to allow service growth to support age and geographic equity.

In addition to increasing the level of child care fee subsidies, the system must continue to build equitable access to family resource programs and parenting support as well as growth in support services for children with special needs. The next five years will see unprecedented growth and the opportunity to develop and foster a system of child care for all children. To secure equitable outcomes for all children, additional investments are needed for families and children living in high-need areas or in circumstances that put children at risk of long-term negative outcomes.

While fee subsidy provides assistance with the cost of child care, many families continue to struggle with restrictive eligibility criteria. Improvements to eligibility requirements in 2004 included the elimination of a number of barriers, such as the reinstatement of flexibility in determining hours of care and removing RRSPs and RESPs from the asset calculation. Unfortunately, some restrictive policies continue to create barriers. In particular, students continue to face obstacles as a result of the treatment of Ontario Student Assistance Program loans. As the Province moves towards improving access for middle class families, it will be important to ensure that quality child care and other early learning programs are accessible to all children regardless of their parent’s income or employment status.

This plan sets out a five-year time frame for achieving equity with annual progress reviews and target adjustments depending on the availability of new resources. In November 2004, City Council endorsed a six-point action plan for building on a national early learning and care program. This plan included a commitment to expand the child care system through public and/or not-for-profit delivery.

Recommendations – Access and equity

1. The City will ensure equitable access for all children by developing a range of programs and services, including part-time options, and by actively pursuing development in communities that are under-served.
   
2. The City’s capital strategy will target capital investment for expansion and growth following the principles of geographic and age equity, targeting under-served age groups and areas, as well as high-needs areas, and where possible build on joint investment and co-location of service.
3. Capital and operating funding for new programs will require that programs be inclusive.
4. Service growth will occur in the not-for-profit and public sector.
5. The City will continue to work to rationalize family resource programs in the future.
6. The City will advocate with the Province for improvements to child care subsidy requirements to remove barriers to access.
7. The City will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the Home Child Care rate structure, to improve fair and equitable access for children of all age groups to quality home child care experiences.

Building public support for child care
The Toronto Report Card on Children has helped bring the needs of Toronto’s families and children to a wider audience. Strategic City investments in services to children and families have been facilitated through the Action Plan for Children. Unfortunately, meeting the needs of Toronto’s children is not entirely within the City’s control. Senior levels of government have a significant influence over policies and funding which directly affect programs and services for children. The City must continue to advocate with other levels of government to ensure that it has sufficient resources to support families and children in Toronto.

Child care services are first and foremost a service to children and their families. It is essential that the City support informed parental choice by providing information to parents about the benefits of early learning and child care, the range of child care and support programs available to them, and the availability of fee subsidy to help with the cost of care.

Recommendations – Building public support for child care

1. The City will continue to develop, implement and sustain a comprehensive public communication strategy to ensure that the public becomes better informed about the long-term social, economic and financial benefits of child care.
2. The City will continue to champion the needs of children and families.

Appendices

Appendix A - Toronto's Children's Strategy

VISION

Regardless of the socio-economic status of his/her family and community, every child has the right to childhood experiences which promote the chances of developing into a healthy, well-adjusted and productive adult.

THE CITY'S STRATEGY FOR CHILDREN

The City's Children's Strategy is based on the belief that society shares with families responsibility for their children and therefore that efforts to improve children's well-being are legitimately part of the City's public service agenda. It is also generally well recognized that all families will likely require some measure of public support during their children's developmental years.  The City's Children's Strategy recognizes that a universal albeit scaled municipal response to this need is required.

The key components of Toronto's Children's Strategy may be summarized as follows:

1. The City demands a holistic as opposed to a sectoral or program response to issues affecting children's well-being.
2. The City sets aggressive but achievable annual benchmarks to secure progress towards desired outcomes for children.
3. The City demonstrates public accountability for improvement in children's well-being by publishing an annual report card on the state of this City's children.
4. The City promotes both equity of access and responsive service approaches to children through integrated service planning at the neighborhood level.
5. The City's plans and investments in children are actively informed and supported by the most current theory and research.
6. The City promotes innovation and aggressively pursues improvements in policy and programs based on best practices.
7. The City uses its influence and resource base to broaden commitment for a children's agenda and lever contribution from other government and community partners.
8. The City builds and strengthens local community partnerships and negotiates the fullest and most prudent use of shared community resources.
9. The City actively focuses media attention on children's issues and advocates publicly for needed change.
10. The City highlights and celebrates achievements in the children's services field and uses each incremental success to help achieve its broader vision for children.

Adopted by Toronto City Council, November 1999

Appendix B - Public consultation

SERVICE PROVIDERS/OPERATOR CONSULTATION
In the summer of 2004 the first stage of public consultation was underway. A survey was developed and sent to Operators and Service providers. In late June surveys were sent out to:

• All purchased and non-purchased child care centres (over 830 programs)
• All city funded family resource programs (47 programs)
• All city funded special needs agencies (28 agencies)

A reminder was sent out to purchased group centres at the end of August.

Low response rate - just over 100 programs responded out of a possible 905. At least one response was received from each ward.

We asked: What do you think are the 3 most important issues impacting your ability to deliver stable, equitable, accessible and developmentally appropriate care for children.

We heard: The following top 5 issues were heard from approximately a quarter of all the respondents:

1. Not receiving actual costs
   When per diems fall short of actual costs, operators have indicated it is very difficult to replace or update toys, books and equipment or to plan for any large expenditures.
2. Restrictive provincial eligibility criteria
   The provincial eligibility criteria for subsidized parents are too restrictive. Many families are in a catch 22 situation. They are unable to pay the high cost of child care and yet they are also ineligible for subsidy due to the eligibility criteria. In particular the restrictions are a barrier to parents who are students, parents on one month job search and the parents whose RRSP's or pension plans make them ineligible.
3. Not enough support for children with special needs
   There needs to be more funding, resources and support for centres to care for children with special needs. Without the support centres do not feel they can accommodate more than one or two children with special needs. Families are also having a difficult time finding programs that meet both the special needs of their child as well as the parents need for a local program.
4. Funding & financial pressures
   Funding was mentioned again and again as a barrier to providing quality care. "Quality child care requires more money than the public is willing to pay." "Funding is always a primary concern. Without it you cannot provide the equipment, supplies nor can you hire quality staff"
• Funding does not taking into account inflation
• Many types of funding are not distributed equally between non-profit and commercial centres and many new programs do not receive wage subsidy or pay equity
• New costs like property tax and increased costs to things like insurance premiums, benefit costs etc.
• Payments to municipalities from provincial and federal governments
5. Staffing & staff salaries
   Salaries are not attractive enough to encourage new trained teachers or to keep good qualified teachers. "Low remuneration for teachers affects staff stability/continuity"

Other responses related to:

City policies and procedures

• Constant change to intake workers and consultants does not allow a centre to build a good rapport which can impact on timely accessibility for families.
• The feedback, expectations and follow up from consultants needs to be improved
• Waitlist does not seem to be accurate & up to date
• The City's Notice of Withdrawal Policy is not fair to centres

Enrolment issues and one year maternity leave
In many centres, there is a large turnover of clients which affects the stability of the centre - often this is caused by provincial eligibility requirements. In some parts of the city both full fee and fully subsidized centres are having difficulty keeping the centre full.

The one year maternity leave impacts the enrollment at child care centres, particularly in the infant age group and often for the toddler groups as well. It has a lesser impact on other age groups although when parents are home with an infant for a year they withdraw the older sibling as well because of cost and if they are subsidized they are ineligible for care at this time.

Quality of Staff and Quality care
The schools need to improve their standards to raise the overall quality of ECE graduates. ECE students are not always trained properly to care for children with special needs. To provide quality care, continued training for all ECE staff is necessary but is very difficult for staff to attend during regular business hours. Increasing the DNA requirements regarding the ratio of ECE teachers to children would improve the quality of care.

Child care programs located in schools
Centres located in schools are having many restrictions and limitations in terms of space, work orders…

School age child care: There is not enough funding for school age children. There are access issues specifically for the 6 to 12 year old age group including closed school boundaries and subsidy ceilings.

Part time child care and flexibility for parents: Parents are requesting more part time care and more flexibility.

Access to child care and or special needs supports:
A family's access to suitable child care is impacted by several things including location of child care, eligibility for subsidized child care, flexibility of care available, school boundaries, cost of child care, needs of child and family.

Integration/Coordination
There needs to be more co-ordination and integration of services and requirements between different levels of governments.

Parental Involvement
Parental involvement with the child care is important to a child's positive experience at the centre.

Home child care operators had specific issues:

• low enrolment trends
• financial pressures such as increased insurance premiums
• difficulty maintaining and recruiting providers
• lack of understanding from parents/community re home child care as a licensed and viable option

Family resource programs had specific issues:

• lack of adequate funding to cover the costs of running their programs
• limitations in the number of children they can serve due space constraints - tied to funding
• inability to pay for qualified staff

Parent Consultation Sessions
In the fall of 2004, consumers of child care (parents) were also consulted about what is important to them and their families. Following is a summary of those meetings and what was heard.

There have been 16 Parent Consultation Sessions scheduled through out the City. These are being held across the city and include one session for the Francophone Community and one for the Aboriginal Community. The remaining 14 sessions were held based on city wards. All meeting locations were offering on site child care as well as refreshments for parents and children.

Flyers were broadly distributed to encourage participation from a wide cross section of parents. Flyers were mailed to all Group Child Care Centres, Family Resource Programs, Special Needs Agencies, Home Child Care Agencies, Ontario Early Years Centres, Toronto Public Libraries, Community Centres, Toronto Public Health, Social Service Offices and to clients on the waitlist for subsidized child care. The flyers were accompanied by a cover letter, asking people to assist us in promoting these meetings by posting the flyer and encouraging parents to attend. Consultants were also actively promoting the sessions through network meetings and the many other community meetings that consultants participate in.

Parents want: choice, flexibility, availability, quality, information, access, part-time care, drop in programs, group care, changes in eligibility criteria across the board, simplified process for subsidy, more staff, more trained staff, equality, one stop shopping

Question 1: Child Care in the City of Toronto can be very expensive. Eligibility for subsidy is often difficult. Have you ever applied for subsidized child care and found you were not eligible?

• “Made to feel small when attending the subsidy office”, subsidy office intimidating
• Provincial eligibility criteria a very real barrier to accessing child care
• Asset ceiling of $5, 000 per adult is far too low, including RRSP, RESP, Life Insurance
• Job search time of 1 month is too short
• Placement of children should be allowed to give parents job-search time to find employment
• New immigrants, the money that people arrive in Canada with should be counted as income over a specified period of time until other income is available to family not as an asset as it is currently
• OSAP
• Whole process is too intrusive, complicated, and too much documentation is required
• Updates are too long, too much paper work required
• “Feels like we’re applying for welfare”
• Policies should match other government policies for example Employment Insurance, when receiving EI parents must look for work, but don’t qualify for child care in order to seek employment, EI policies state that child care must be in place or the parents are considered not to be looking for work and therefore ineligible for EI benefits

Question 2: The Children's Services Division wants all families to be able to choose high quality licensed child care for their children between the ages of 0-9 years. We want to know how to support you in finding the child care program that best meets your needs. You may not be aware of this but we do assessments of the programs to make sure that they met our standards. Would you use this information to help you choose your child care?

• Quality Child Care is important
• Q & A about the quality of child care programs
• Options when choosing child care, many parents indicated they prefer group licensed child care to home child care options
• Quality and location are most important factors
• “Restaurant” style posting would be helpful, i.e. Pass, fail according to Operating Criteria
• Criteria results on-line to assist in their choice of child care
• Hard copy of criteria results would be useful, not everyone has Internet access
• Check list for review of programs
• Outreach to parents to provide information about quality child care, sent to home like Parks & Recreation Guide
• Television infomercials/public service announcements to demonstrate what quality child care is, with dialogue in language to match programming on ethnic stations

Question 3: What do you need in the way of services or supports from the City of Toronto, Children's Services?

• Flexible child care in terms of hours available, extended days into the evening and weekend care
• Part time care
• Options in choosing group care, home child care, drop in programs
• Parenting sessions to assist in raising children
• More community information at the child care centres
• Catalogue of services for children, similar to the Parks & Recreation Guide
• Question and Answer sheet for child care
• Infant care and school age care
• School age care in particular should be in the schools
• Integrated services, single access point to services, services in one location

Question 4: Child Care Centres in the City of Toronto serve children with a variety of needs. Some children have additional challenges, behavioural issues, and developmental delays or need extra support. Do you think that your child’s child care has adequate resources to support the needs of the children in care?

• NO, there are not adequate resources
• Denied service due to children’s behavioural issues
• More staff
• More trained staff
• More resources
• More training for staff, PD days, continued education

Home Child Care Provider Consultation Sessions
Consultation Sessions held in the east and west end of the city with home child care providers from several home child care agencies on October 2 and October 4, 2004.

Question 1: What needs to happen to make home child care an attractive choice for parents?

• Misconception that home child care is baby-sitting
• Providers need to be professional
• Advertising needed
• Communication between intake/home visitors/providers
• Home child care needs to be promoted more to parents as a choice
• Get the word out that home child care is licensed

Question 2: What would encourage you to take infants and children with special needs into care in your home?

• Higher rates
• Training/workshops
• Equipment, like strollers, high chairs, car seats
• Extra supports, like resource educators
• Different criteria for getting special needs rates
• Ratios for school age children, so you could have more school age children in care and still have infants

Question 3: We understand that low enrollment in home child care has been a concern in some areas. Are there vacancies in your home? If so, why?

• School boundaries
• Eligibility criteria for parents
• Getting the word out to parents
• change in population in the neighborhood

Question 4: What supports do you need to assist you in providing high quality care in your home?

• Seminars/workshops/advanced training
• Incentive to attend workshops
• Additional money to cover expenses for food for school age children
• Equipment, supplies, craft materials
• Accreditation
• Networking/contacts

Home Child Care Agencies Consultation
In the fall of 2004, the Home Child Care Agencies were consulted at a monthly meeting of the Toronto Home Child Care Association.

Question 1: What needs to happen to have you serve a greater number of younger children (infants/toddlers) and children with special needs?

• One year maternity policy affecting numbers of infants coming into care, children coming into care at an older age
• Children who came as infants many years ago have stayed on to their school age years
• Training for providers
• Change in ratios to allow more school age children in home, while still caring for infants and toddlers, would accept more infants if ratios were changed to allow for increased capacity
• Need incentive/exceptional rate for children with special needs and for evening and weekend care
• Home child care needs to be promoted through our intake offices on equal footing with group care
• Special Needs rates need to be more flexible so providers could get rate for children with undiagnosed special needs, revisit what is the definition of special needs children and families
• Child with special needs takes an infant space
• Provide increased training for providers aimed at infants and special needs
• Parents want part time care, need flexibility in accepting part time children

Question 2: How do we ensure a certain level of quality care?

• Value the work the providers do by paying sufficient rates and treating as professionals
• Use of operating criteria as a self assessment tool
• Training/Workshops from basic to more advanced
• Accreditation with pay for training
• Tools for parents to monitor quality
• Attract and retain quality providers by presenting a package of compensation
• Monitoring by home visitors and consultants

Question 3: What would make it more attractive for providers to offer more flexible hours of care?

• Exceptional rates, premium service rates for evening and weekend care
• Communicating to parents that part time care is available
• Finding providers that are interested in providing flexible and part time hours of care, not full time traditional hours of care
• Additional supports from agencies and home visitors

Question 4: What do you see as issues with the current rate structure? a) What do you think is not working? b) What are your suggestions to reform the rate structure for home child care?

• Research rates in other municipalities and in the rest of Canada
• What are the rates in other parts of Canada and what works and what doesn’t work
• Need rate to attract part time providers and to attract providers to offer weekend and evening care
• Parents remaining in LINC programs longer to get access to care
• Make additional wage subsidy money available
• Rates set by periods of the day available not by hours of service
• Need rates for special needs to be expanded with more flexible

Appendix C - Children living in low-income families

( for a larger view, please click on the image)

Appendix D - Client Data

Employment status of parents with child care subsidy (for a larger view, please click on the image)

Profiles of families receiving subsidized child care - April 2005 (excludes families living in hostels, or having no income)

(for a larger view, please click on image)

Enrolment as of April 4, 2005 (for a larger view, please click on the image)

Sample Schedule of User Fees at 27% tax-back rate - no minimum fee (for a larger view, please click on the image)

Note:

1. Turning Point represents the income level at which the tax-back begins (i.e. for a 1+1 family 27% of all income above $1,200 will be applied against the fee). The Turning Point is determined by doubling the Basic Needs Allowance as determined by provincial regulation and is annually adjusted.
2. No minimum fee is being applied regardless family size.
3. For each additional dependent aged 0-12 add $300 to the turning point value; for each additional dependent aged 13+ add $350 to the turning point value.

Average Public Fee for Purchased Licensed Group Child Care Programs (for a larger view, please click on the image)

Appendix E - Provincial subsidy, 2001 - 2005 (for a larger view, please click on the image)

Appendix F - Principles for the Allocation of Funding from the Child Care Capital Reserve Fund

Originally approved in the 2001 Service Plan

1. Subject to upholding the equity, accountability and operating effectiveness principles of the service plan, the Child Care Capital Reserve Fund may be used for the following types of projects:
• Relocation of child care centres that lose tenure due to closure of schools or other publicly operated facilities
• Renovations for the purpose of operating a more efficient child care site
• Renovations for the purpose of introducing or enlarging the infant component to a child care centre
• Development of new child care facilities, either stand-alone facilities or those integrated into larger developments.
2. Funding can be made available to nonprofit or municipal child care agencies subject to the following restrictions:
• Resulting programs must be financially viable
• The operators must provide an agreement for security of tenure or a proportional repayment of the capital grant in case of loss of tenure
• Priority for funding will be assigned to programs caring primarily for subsidized children located in areas designated as under-served in the service plan, or areas with high proportion of at-risk children.
3. The service plan and its annual update will identify areas in need of new licensed child care spaces. Children’s Services will issue an annual request for proposals to generate new service capacity with the aid of the Child Care Capital Reserve Fund.
4. Although the purpose of the fund is to promote the growth in licensed child care spaces, priority and additional funding may be given to projects that build on synergies gained through integration of services.
5. The Child Care Capital Reserve Fund may not be used for the purpose of building or renovating stand-alone, single-use, school-age space.
6. The Child Care Capital Reserve Fund may be used as a revolving fund which grants loans to the operators to be repaid through user revenue.

Appendix G - Access to special needs resourcing map (for a larger view, please click on image)

• Click here to view the previous Child Care Service Plan 2001