Temporary relief as Ontario child care deal extended, but advocates slam agreement for freezing wage improvements, stalling fee reductions, and making no new commitments to make affordable child care available for more families

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Child care advocates, early childhood educators, and parents are expressing a mixture of relief and severe frustration following the announcement of a four-year extension to the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) agreement that sets no new targets to strengthen or expand the system.

While the extension averts an immediate funding cliff for families and child care operators, the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC) and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) warn that freezing both the wage floor and fee reductions severely undermines both the social and economic dividends of the $10aDay plan.

“While parents and operators may feel relieved today that the expiry of the agreement has been avoided for now, this deal is a deeply ill-judged compromise,” said Carolyn Ferns, Policy Coordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. “Child care expansion actually generates a net profit for the provincial government in tax revenue. Yet instead of reinvesting those returns to finish the job, this deal freezes parent fees at $22 a day and ends further wage improvements - meaning a loss for ECEs in real dollars.”

A recent analysis from the Centre for Future Work shows that the economic activity generated from the partial roll-out of the $10aDay plan yielded $2.25 billion in direct provincial tax revenue in 2024 alone. Advocates warn that by stalling further progress rather than securing an ambitious, permanent vision for expansion, governments are threatening this massive economic return.

Freezing the wage floor is one of the most critical mistakes in the agreement. With an estimated shortage of 10,000 Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs), programs across Ontario have been forced to close rooms or cap enrollment due to severe staffing shortages. Advocates have been calling for years for a publicly funded salary grid starting at $35-$45 per hour for RECEs and $28 per hour for early years staff. Not only does this agreement fail to deliver a wage grid, it stalls even the limited progress that has been made on ECEs’ pay.

“You cannot expand child care spaces without educators to bring them alive, and modest wage improvements have not been high enough to address the workforce crisis,” said Amber Straker, Executive Director of the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO). “Stagnating wages and operating without a competitive wage grid sets up child care expansion to fail, and parent waitlists will keep growing. Once hailed as ‘the heart of the system’, the child care workforce counts and their wages matter; they deserve decent work, benefits, and professional pay.”

For families, freezing fee reductions at $22 a day—missing the promised $10aDay target—means that Ontario families, already facing an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, are paying more than double the fees charged in seven other provinces.

“Parents fought for $10aDay child care, not an endless pause at $22,” said Ferns. “Halting fee reductions and failing to fix the staffing crisis treats child care as a luxury rather than a fundamental right for our children and a driver of our economy.”

The OCBCC and AECEO are calling on the federal and provincial governments to immediately revise their trajectory by adopting the policy interventions laid out in the Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario:

1. Immediately continue wage improvements for RECEs and fund a comprehensive provincial wage grid ($35-$45 per hour for RECEs; $28 per hour for non-RECE staff) with pensions and benefits.
2. Resume the path to a maximum $10aDay cap for all families.
3. Impose a permanent moratorium on new for-profit licensing and implement an "asset lock" to ensure public funds build permanent public and non-profit assets.
4. Commit to a full 5-year bilateral agreement with a new action plan, backed by increased federal and provincial investment to ensure long-term stability for children, families, and the workforce.

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