Province hands out $8M for daycare spaces in Timmins

Education Minister Stephen Lecce was in Timmins on Tuesday visiting local child care centres and announcing major funding.

Lecce announced almost $8 million to lower the cost of child care for area parents and build 189 new child care spaces in the area.

Timmins and area has a waitlist in the hundreds of children awaiting a spot, local officials said.

For his for visit to Timmins, Lecce said more money is funnelling into the Cochrane district to build more capacity and get the region closer to “$10 a day” child care.

“In addition to a 50 per cent reduction in child care fees, today we are committing another 189 net new spaces to be created in this community, for this community, that comes at a critical time,” he said.

“That means there will be 1,789 spaces, in totality, that will be available for families.”

The announcement arranged by Tory MPP George Pirie was a welcome one, with demand for child care growing in the region.

“Our government is committed to building up northeastern Ontario and supporting the people of Timmins, by investing in child care,” Pirie said.

Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau said early care is critical.

“Quality early learning sets the foundation for lifelong education, social development and health,” Boileau said.

“Today’s announcement doesn’t only improve access, but allows for the expansion of early education programming. Both of which will help build resilient communities.”

The additional spaces will be spread across the district, from Timmins to Moosonee, to Black River-Matheson.

“We do have some areas in those communities that do not have any licensed child care,” said Shannon Costello of the Cochrane District Social Services Administration Board.

“However there will be some spaces allocated to Timmins, whether it be through home child care or through licensed spaces.”

But Costello says the extra capacity also means the added challenge to make sure they’re fully staffed.

“Currently, in the DSSAB area, we need 110 educators to be at full capacity of the current spaces that we have open,” she said.

“With those additional 189 spaces, we’ll need 56 additional educators, on top of that 110.”

A tentative agreement with public education workers is yet to be ratified, which aims to encourage more workers to fill these roles.

Costello said the social services board will learn whether it has the funds to hire enough workers at its funding allocation next month.

Meantime, Lecce said the province is on track to build all of its promised child care spaces by 2026, when $10-a-day care should be well underway.