Niagara Region struggling to keep pace with daycare needs
Niagara Region’s children’s services department fears there still may not be enough child-care services available to meet local needs — despite efforts to add more than 4,000 spaces.
“There has been tremendous growth in our licensed home childcare centres,” children’s services director Satinder Klair told members of the municipality's public health and social services committee on Tuesday.
He said the federal governmentbacked Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care program has made child care affordable for many Niagara families, reducing fees by more than 52 per cent.
“While the program has brought many great benefits to families it has also led to an increased demand for child care.”
He said demand increased by 89 per cent from March 2022, when the program was introduced, until February of this year.
And following the COVID-19 pandemic, Klair said that demand had increased by 104 per cent.
He said the Region was allocated an additional 4,067 child-care spaces, primarily to serve priority areas and diverse communities where spaces are needed most — such as for special needs children — and “tremendous progress” has been made to expand the number of spaces to meet general demand.
“It has not been without challenges, however,” Klair said.
In addition to changes in the province’s funding formula for child care, as well as challenges recruiting registered early childhood educators, limiting the Region to operating at 63 per cent capacity, he said the increased number of child-care spaces may fall short, with a forecast 31 per cent increase in the number of children living in Niagara in the next 20 years.
Grimsby Coun. Albert Witteveen wondered if increased wages paid to early childhood educators may play a role in ensuring enough staff will be available.
Klair said early childhood education programs at Niagara College are at capacity, with about 180 students expected to enrol in the year to come.
“I’m sure the individuals that are working in that field have heard that their wages were going to increase, which helped probably for them to be around to realize that compensation,” Witteveen said.
St. Catharines Coun. Haley Bateman said she has experienced the wait for child-care services for her own family.
“Not so long ago, I was on that list and it was years before I got a call,” she said. “I never did get a spot for my kids, which is disappointing.”
Bateman asked if there may be ways to improve the wait list.
Klair said there are always opportunities from a technology enhancement perspective to improve the system, and his department will be looking into that.
Bateman said the issue is “really important” to her “because I don’t want anyone to be in the situation that I was in, having no care for your kids and having to quit your job.”
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, child-care demand had increased by 104 per cent