Northeastern Ontario has been allocated 1,253 child care spaces under a provincial plan to begin offering $10 a day child care by September 2025.
The plan fleshes out details of a March 2022 agreement with the federal government worth $13.2 billion over six years.
In a news release Monday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the program will benefit families in big and small communities.
“Our government is making child care affordable — with savings averaging between $6,000 to $10,000 per child by the end of this year — and investing in new spaces that will benefit parents for years to come,” Lecce is quoted as saying.
“With the cost of living rising across the country, the Ontario government is increasing access to child care spaces and delivering needed financial relief for families.”
The reaction in Sudbury was mixed. Tracy Saarikoski, executive director of Discovery Early Learning and Care, said finding staff will be a challenge.
They have a waitlist of 700 at one of their locations, she said. Low wages, demanding work and easier options – working at the taxation centre or somewhere you can work from home – makes it hard to recruit.
“We are struggling to retain and recruit early childhood educators because of their wages,” Saarikoski said.
“So the three levels of government really need to work together and increase the wages and support the workforce in a much better way.”
More than 53,000 spaces are expected to be created province-wide by December 2026. This is the breakdown for the northeast:
- Sault area: 322
- Sudbury-Manitoulin: 402
- North Bay area: 234
- Timmins area: 164
- Parry Sound: 131
