Hoping for $10-a-day child care? Here’s how many Toronto daycares opted in to the federal program in 2016
The numbers released Tuesday confirm Toronto Daycare providers and parents have been waiting for the federal Canada Child Benefit for some time. And, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the wait is finally over: Ontario has allocated $1.6-billion to Ontario Daycares over five years.
How much is allocated is now determined by the provincial ministry of child care.
In 2016, the province allocated $1.27-billion to Ontario day cares, says Ontario’s child care planning and administration ministry.
That’s $12.27/hour of day care for a child, says the province.
In 2016, parents of children attending day care in Toronto received $11.3-million in federal money through the Canada Child Benefit program, says a news release from the child care planning and administration ministry.
By comparison, Toronto’s population is around 7.2 million, though that’s an overestimation of the population as the City of Toronto adds its share to the total numbers. If the province added all the children from the Toronto census tract statistics, they would be right at around 10 million.
So it is possible to receive $11.3 million per child, per year, in Ontario, and have it distributed evenly across an entire province or metropolitan area.
How much money the province will receive for Ontario’s children will depend on what percentage of the province’s population comes from the Toronto census tract statistical areas, and the number of children enrolled in Ontario care in those areas.
The province has released an estimate of $3.1-billion in provincial revenues, says spokesperson Jessica Miller. That’s before taking into account the $1.6-billion in federal funding. The difference of $1.7-billion, said the spokesperson, is money the province is getting from Ottawa.
The daycares in Ontario will get $1.4-billion.
But that’s before the federal money.
The Toronto Star reported in August 2014 that the provincial government planned to use $2.5-million from the Canada Child Benefit program to boost
