Child care gets $5.9M provincial boost

Funding will help Waterloo Region families by eliminating subsidy wait list

WATERLOO REGION — More families in Waterloo Region will be able to access and afford licensed child care due to a nearly $6-million funding boost from the province.

“We’re working very diligently to make sure we get this funding into the community as soon as possible,” said Barb Cardow, the region’s director of children’s services.

The money will be used to eliminate the current subsidy wait list, add infant spaces in Elmira, increase access to care for special needs children, provide operating funding to new child care programs in four local schools, and help efforts to recruit more licensed home child care providers.

“It’s great news for hundreds of families who will be able to access child care subsidy,” Cardow said.

More than 400 children are currently on the wait list. An average of 2,870 children received a subsidy during the month of May.

Regional staff have already started reaching out to families on the wait list, Cardow said.

Money will also go to operating costs for four new child care centres already approved and expected to open in schools before December 2018.

To boost the number of child care spots, the region will also work on recruiting more licensed child-care providers operating out of their homes. Home child care is a vital part of the system by providing child care options outside traditional working hours.

“We’re putting some efforts into that to increase the availability,” Cardow said.

Three additional infant spaces will be added at the Elmira Children’s Centre, adding to the current six to reach the total licensing for nine. These spaces are the only licensed centre-based infant spaces in Woolwich Township. Currently, there are 23 infants on the wait list for this September.

Cardow said the region knew additional money was coming from province, but until recently it was unsure of amount. The extra funding gives the region the resources to cover many items in its child care plan.

“We’re very excited,” Cardow said.

The region received $5,964,335 from the province as part of its child care expansion plan. More than $2.2 million of that is part of the Canada-Ontario Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

Combined with other increased funding, the total children’s services budget for 2017 is $57 million.