Canada-Wide Early Learning & Child Care (CWELCC) System

Applications for the 2025 CWELCC Expansion, Start-up Grant and Infrastructure Fund will open on Friday, July 18, 2025 and be accepted until October 31, 2025. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis as they are received.

The Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system supports quality, accessibility, affordability, and inclusivity in licensed child care.

CWELCC Growth & Expansion is key to ensuring the CWELCC system will:

  • Create more affordable, quality licensed child care spaces;
  • Continue to support the early childhood workforce through enhanced compensation, training, and professional learning opportunities; and
  • Improve accessibility by addressing barriers to providing inclusive and flexible child care.

The Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system is a five-year plan that focuses on:

  • Increasing family access to more affordable and high-quality child care options
  • Lowering child care fees for parents and guardians of children under the age of 6
  • Increasing child care spaces
  • Supporting the child care workforce
  • Supporting inclusive child care

Visit the Ministry’s Canada-Ontario early years and child care agreement webpage for more information on Ontario’s plan to provide more accessible child care options and lower fees.

CWELCC & Child Care Fee Subsidy

  • As of January 1, 2025, child care fees are capped at $22 per day. Please reach out to the Child Care Centre or Home Child Care Agency directly for detailed information about program fees.
  • Families can find agencies that are participating in CWELCC and that accept fee subsidy by using the Find a Child Care Near You, A-Z Child Care listing, and/or Licensed Home Child Care Page. Child care fee subsidy continues to be available for eligible families to assist with the cost of child care. For more information and how to apply for a fee subsidy, visit Child Care Fee Subsidy or call 416-338-8888.

Applications for the 2025 CWELCC Expansion, Start-up Grant and Infrastructure Fund will open on Friday, July 18, 2025 and be accepted until October 31, 2025. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis as they are received.

Toronto Children’s Services (TCS) is planning a virtual operator information session in the coming weeks. We will let the sector know once the date is confirmed.

All Child Care Centres CWELCC Expansion, Start-up Grant & Infrastructure Fund applications will be reviewed and approved based on Toronto Children’s Services eligibility criteria, priorities, and space and funding allocations that align with the Ministry of Education’s Access and Inclusion Framework and Toronto Children’s Services Growth Strategy. Other eligibility requirements may be developed and applied by the City of Toronto related to Directed Growth.

For complete CWELCC Expansion details, please see the CWELCC Expansion Guide – Child Care Centres / Guide d’expansion du Système pancanadien d’apprentissage et de garde des jeunes enfants : Centres de garde d’enfants. Eligible agencies may complete the Application Form / Formulaire de demande de subvention au SPAGJE 2025 – Centres de garde d’enfants, and email it to TCSGrowth@toronto.ca, along with the supporting documentation.

Eligibility

Child Care Agencies that meet the following expansion criteria are eligible to apply:

  • Not-for-Profit Agencies
  • Francophone Agencies
  • Indigenous-led Agencies
  • Black-Led, Black-Mandated and Black-Serving Organizations
  • TCS is currently prioritizing and approving new full-time spaces for infant, toddler and preschool age groups. The expansion of kindergarten before and after school spaces is processed in coordination with the Toronto school boards.

At this this time, we have paused on accepting applications from Commercial Agencies based on our current auspice goals.

Priority Neighbourhoods

To support equity planning principles of age and geographic equity, TCS will consider where the Child Care Agency is providing service in relation to the priority areas for expansion.

For more information on the Toronto Children’s Services’ approach to enhance access and inclusion for priority areas and target populations see the June 14, 2023 City of Toronto Council approved report  page 9 for the Priority Levels for CWELCC Expansion by Toronto Wards map. To lookup your location’s ward, please visit the Ward Profiles page.

Types of Requests

The 2025 CWELCC Application process is for the following types of Child Care Centre requests:

  • Agency requesting to enroll a child care centre into the CWELCC program.
  • Agency with a child care centre currently enrolled in the CWELCC program and requesting to revise their current Provincial license and receive CWELCC funding for the proposed capacity changes.
  • In addition, the Agency is requesting one or more of the following: Start-up Grant Funding, Infrastructure Fund, an agreement for Fee Subsidy.

Note: Please do not submit an application for the following types of requests

Please contact your District Consultant for more information if you would like to make changes to your existing CWELLC-enrolled child care centre alternate or school-age capacities only.

Start-up Grant and Infrastructure Fund

Requests for Start-up Grant and/or Infrastructure Fund must be submitted through the 2025 CWELCC application process and subject to the expansion criteria outlined above. Please refer to the Ministry of Education CWELCC Guidelines (Updated March 2025) for complete details about the Start-up Grant and Infrastructure Fund, eligible and ineligible expenses.

Note: School-based programs, facilities owned by school boards, kindergarten and before and after school programs are ineligible for the Start-up Grant and Infrastructure Fund.

Start-up Grant Criteria:

  • Available to not-for-profit and commercial Agencies. We are only accepting applications from not-for-profit, Indigenous-led, Francophone or Black-Led, Black-Mandated, and Black-Serving organizations at this time.
  • Supports the creation of full day child care for infant, toddler and preschool age groups in a community setting.
  • Agencies may be eligible for up to $350,000 for every new 20 child care spaces created. The remaining number of new spaces above 20 will be calculated using a prorated amount of $17,500 per space.

Infrastructure Fund Criteria:

  • Available to not-for-profit child care Agencies only.
  • Agencies are required to have a service agreement for fee subsidy with the City of Toronto.
  • TCS will prioritize projects that are submitted by Indigenous-led, Black-Led, Black-Mandated, and Black-Serving organizations, that are located in City of Toronto high priority wards, and include the creation of new infant and toddler spaces.
  • There is limited funding available for the Infrastructure Fund and TCS will determine the maximum amount of funding awarded to each project.

Available Support

Please see the CWELCC Expansion Guide – Child Care Centres for full details.

For questions about the 2025 CWELCC expansion process, please email TCSgrowth@toronto.ca

Child Care Agencies already enrolled in CWELCC may contact their Toronto Children’s Services, District Consultant.

Applications for the 2025 CWELCC Expansion, Start-up Grant and Infrastructure Fund will open on Friday, July 18, 2025 and be accepted until October 31, 2025. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis as they are received.

Toronto Children’s Services (TCS) is planning a virtual operator information session in the coming weeks. We will let the sector know once the date is confirmed.

All Home Child Care CWELCC Expansion & Start-up Grant applications will be reviewed and approved based on Toronto Children’s Services eligibility criteria, priorities, and space and funding allocations that align with the Ministry of Education’s Access and Inclusion Framework and Toronto Children’s Services Growth Strategy. Other eligibility requirements may be developed and applied by the City of Toronto related to Directed Growth.

For complete CWELCC Expansion details, please see the CWELCC Expansion Guide – Home Child Care / Guide d’inscription au Système pancanadien d’apprentissage et de garde des jeunes enfants : Services de garde en milieu familial. Eligible agencies may complete the Application Form / Formulaire de demande de subvention au SPAGJE 2025 – Services de garde en milieu familial, and email it to TCSGrowth@toronto.ca, along with the supporting documentation.

Eligibility

Home Child Care Agencies that meet the following expansion criteria are eligible to apply:

  • Not-for-Profit Home Child Care Agencies
  • Francophone Agencies
  • Indigenous-led Agencies
  • Black-Led, Black-Mandated, and Black-Serving Organizations
  • Commercial Home Child Care Agencies may be considered

Applications from Commercial Home Child Care Agencies may be considered. As outlined in the Ministry of Education CWELCC Guidelines (Updated March 2025), Chapter 2.1, page 11, “for the purposes of the CWELCC Agreement, all home child care agency licensees are deemed to be not-for-profit licensed child care, regardless of auspice”.

Priority Neighbourhoods

To support equity planning principles of age and geographic equity, TCS will consider where the Home Child Care Agency is providing service in relation to the priority areas for expansion.

For more information on the Toronto Children’s Services’ approach to enhance access and inclusion for priority areas and target populations see the June 14, 2023 City of Toronto Council approved report  page 9 for the Priority Levels for CWELCC Expansion by Toronto Wards map. To lookup your location’s ward, please visit the Ward Profiles page.

Types of Requests

The 2025 CWELCC Application process is for Home Child Care Agencies requesting to enroll into the CWELCC program. The Home Child Care Agency will provide service in the city of Toronto. Requests to open homes in other regions will not be reviewed. Please reach out to the service system manager of that region.

Home Child Care Agencies that are currently enrolled in the CWELCC system and want to increase the total number of homes on their Provincial license (capacity) and receive CWELCC funding for the proposed increased capacity are not required to complete this application form.

Please contact tcsfunding@toronto.ca for this type of request.

Start-up Grant

Agencies approved for CWELCC enrollment and with a Service Agreement with the City of Toronto, may request for Start-up Grant funding when assigning a net new home on the license and the home is ready to accept enrollment.

Home Child Care Agencies may be eligible to receive grants of up to $1,200 per new CWELCC space created, to a maximum of $7,200 per Home Child Care Provider.

Available Support

Please see the CWELCC Expansion Guide – Home Child Care for full details.

For questions about the 2025 CWELCC expansion process, please email TCSgrowth@toronto.ca

Home Child Care Agencies already enrolled in CWELCC may contact their Toronto Children’s Services, District Consultant.

For information about Workforce Compensation, Wage Enhancement Grant (WEG) and Home Child Care Enhancement Grant (HCCEG), please see Toronto Children’s Services (TCS)’ 2025 WEG, HCCEG and Workforce Requirements Guide.

Additional Resources:

  • TCS has developed a CWELCC 2025 Workforce Illustration Tool as a resource to assist licensed child care agencies in understanding the CWELCC Workforce Compensation and Wage Enhancement calculations for their eligible staff. The tool is accessible by contacting the District Consultant assigned to your Agency.

For information on prior years Provincial Wage Enhancement and Home Child Care Enhancement Grant, go to Contract & Financial Information, under Documents.

Within the Province of Ontario, service system managers (SSM/CMSM) are designated under the Child Care and Early Years Act, to manage child care services and early years programs and services across the province.

As the service system manager (SSM/CMSM) for Toronto, the City’s role in the CWELCC system is to:

  • Implement the provincial guidelines;
  • Establish local policies, procedures, and funding approaches;
  • Develop and implement an application and approval process for the CWELCC system;
  • Contract for CWELCC funding through Service Agreements;
  • Provide fiscal oversight & funding; and
  • Report to the Ministry of Education and Toronto City Council on the CWELCC system.

    For more information, Agencies can contact the consultant assigned to the child care location or Agency. Contact information can be found in the A-Z Listing.

    If an Agency wishes to dispute CWELCC funding policy or guideline interpretation, the Agency can draft a formal letter to the General Manager (GM) of Toronto Children’s Services and send it to childcare@toronto.ca, outlining the issues and requesting a review. The GM will then initiate an internal review and communicate the outcome via a formal letter.