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Overview
On March 28, 2022, the Province of Ontario entered into an agreement with the Government of Canada to deliver affordable, inclusive, and high-quality licensed child care for families in Ontario.
Funding under the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) Agreement will be used to build and leverage the success of Ontario’s existing early learning and child care system by increasing quality, accessibility, affordability and inclusivity in early learning and child care, towards achieving the objectives of:
- Providing a 25% fee reduction for parents retroactive to April 1, 2022, building to a 50% reduction in average base fees (based on 2020 levels), and reaching an average parent fee of $10 a day by 2025-2026 for licensed child care spaces.
- Creating 86,000 new high quality, affordable licensed child care spaces (relative to 2019 levels), predominantly through non-profit licensed child care.
- Addressing barriers to provide inclusive child care.
- Valuing the early childhood workforce and providing them with training and development opportunities.
Eligible children include:
- any child that is under six years old, to the end of the month that they turn six, that is enrolled in a licensed infant, toddler, preschool, kindergarten, or primary/junior school age group, a licensed family age group, or licensed home child care, and;
- any child turning six between January 1 and June 30 (e.g. while they are still in kindergarten) remain eligible until June 30 (end of school year) providing that they are enrolled in a licensed preschool or kindergarten age group, a licensed family age group, or licensed home child care. They cannot be enrolled in a primary/junior or junior school age group.
Example 1: A child turning 6 years of age in November will be eligible until November 30.
Example 2: A child turning 6 years of age in February and enrolled in a kindergarten age group will be eligible until June 30.
All licensed programmes as of March 28, 2022, are legislatively required to maintain user fees for eligible child care spaces at rates charged on March 27, 2022. If a licensed programme notified families of an increase to parent fees in 2022 prior to March 27, 2022, then the increased fees will be recognized.
| Licensed Child Care programmes that enroll into the CWELCC System: | Licensed Child Care programmes that do not enroll into the CWELCC System: |
| Must communicate to parents once a decision is made by the County of Wellington within 14 days of receiving notification of their application approval or denial. | Must indicate in their parent handbook that they are not enrolled in the CWELCC System and, must include their fee amounts. |
| Are required to reduce base fees 21 calendar days after the Child Care programme receives their signed CWELCC Agreement from the County of Wellington. | May continue to set their own parent fees. |
If you have not received information from your Licensed Child Care programme about the CWELCC System or, believe you should have received either a refund or reduced fee, please speak with your programme. You can also contact our office:
Children's Early Years Division
Child Care Inquiries
T 519.837.3620 x3095
T 1.800.265.7294 x3095
E. childcareinquiries@wellington.ca
