News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Excerpt: "On May 9, 2016, the Ministry of Education filed new and revised regulations under the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 with the Ontario registrar. The new rules will take effect at varying effective dates, starting July 1, 2016."

Excerpt: "Ontario is proposing a regulation that would ban licensed child care centres and home child care agencies from charging fees to join a waiting list for child care programs."

Excerpt: "Ontario has filed a regulation to end fees for child care wait lists to improve the accessibility of child care and make life easier for families. The ban will take effect September 1, 2016, and will prevent licensed child care centres and home child care agencies from charging fees or requiring deposits to join child care wait lists. The regulatory amendments also require licensed child care providers to: Develop a public wait list policy that clearly explains how children on a wait list are offered admission; Ensure wait list status is made available to families, in a manner that protects the confidentiality of their personal information."

Excerpt: "This new plan provides a picture of our current services and challenges in Waterloo Region, which is based on input and feedback from parents, service providers and child care operators."

Excerpt: "Indira Naidoo-Harris, MPP for Halton, becomes Associate Minister of Education (Early Years and Child Care). She will lead the government's efforts, in partnership with the Minister of Education, to build a high-quality, accessible and affordable early years and child care system that supports choice and flexibility for parents and promotes healthy development for children."

Excerpt: "We have two recommendations with respect to childcare. The first is aimed at developing a system to meet the needs of working women who are trying to get, keep, or extend their hours of work, or advance in their jobs and careers. The second addresses immediate pressures and gaps in the current system that have been identified."

Excerpt: "Ontario is investing more than $23 million to build 35 new licensed child care rooms across the province, delivering on its commitment to build safe, high-quality, licensed child care spaces for Ontario families."

Excerpt: "Every child deserves to have the best start in life. Over the past three years, the government has helped to create 56,000 new licensed child care spaces. Within the next five years, it will help to create another 100,000 spaces, so that working families can find quality, affordable care. Your government will also make it easier for parents to find and use the services their children need, whether they are before-and-after-school programs, drop-in centres or more licensed child care spaces."

Excerpt: "Within the next five years, Ontario will help to create another 100,000 new, licensed child care spaces so that more families in Toronto can find quality, affordable care."

Excerpt: "Premier Kathleen Wynne visited the onsite child care centre at Glynn A. Green Public School in Fonthill, where the government supported a retrofit of existing rooms to help create more than 30 new licensed child care spaces for toddlers and pre-schoolers."

Excerpt: "Ontario is creating 88 new licensed child care spaces in the Waterloo Region, increasing the availability of safe, high-quality, child care for local families. The five new child care rooms for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers will be located in the new St. Boniface Catholic School, which is scheduled to open in 2019. The spaces will give more families the opportunity to transition from child care into full-day kindergarten at the same location."

Excerpt: "Province Investing in 3,400 New Child Care Spaces and Launching Public Consultations."