Ontario weakened its $10-a-day child care funding rules. Now the federal government is demanding answers. (Ainsley Earhardt/CBC)
How did the government of Ontario fail in its attempt to cut child care costs for parents by $10 per day?
The province’s controversial change to its child care funding rules went into effect in June, and was meant to make the state of child care in Ontario a national priority, as the Liberals’ plan to boost the number of child care spaces nationwide over the next 10 years got off the ground.
But instead of being a bold new direction for Ontario’s child care system, the changes went much further.
To be sure, children’s ministers promised parents that the change was intended to address the state of Ontario’s child care system, and ensure that families actually got that much back in their child care funding.
But the changes to the rules went much further than that. They weakened the province’s rules on child care costs for families, allowing parents to cut costs by as little as one fourth of a day — for instance, if they simply go out of town for the weekend instead of staying in their child care centre for full-time care.
The government of Ontario has been on the defensive ever since the changes were announced in June.
‘The federal Liberals just made Ontario’s rules more difficult to implement’
The federal government is now demanding answers, and they’ve done it by going first to the premier of Ontario.
The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has called the funding rules “outrageous,” and he’s promised that if the province doesn’t explain exactly how they got so far off the rails, he will make them change.
Trudeau also announced this week that he will visit Toronto to discuss the child care crisis more deeply, and to meet the province’s three child care ministers.
We asked Ontarians to weigh in on the controversial changes to the province’s funding rules. Below are their reactions:
We want to know what is to blame for this mess. We demand that the federal government tell us how these rules were passed and what changes were made. We will continue to push for a change to the
