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Region to focus on its role as service system manager of child care and early learning

Waterloo Region - By late 2021, the Region of Waterloo will no longer operate its five licensed child care centres, as it focuses on its role as service system manager of child care and early learning. 

The Region will immediately implement a transition plan for the currently enrolled families. A plan to implement the funding redistribution to support the entire system more equitably will also be put in place.

The decision was made at a special meeting of Regional Council on Wednesday, December 2, 2020.

In making the decision, the Region recognized the vital importance of quality licensed child care in our community as well as the important role child care provides in workforce participation of parents, especially mothers. The Region also recognized that child care plays a vital role in the recovery of the local economy and that high quality child care outcomes is especially important for vulnerable children.

The decision will allow the Region to invest system-wide, to ensure that a delicate child care system will be as stable as possible for all parents post-pandemic. 

As part of a comprehensive service review, KPMG spoke to funding inequities across the system, indicating that for the amount of funding the Region allocates to operate 200 of its own child care spaces, it could have supported another 350 to 791 licensed spaces operated by programs in the community.

The KPMG review also confirmed that the current model of child care provision at the Region of Waterloo comes at a significant cost to taxpayers and that the Region’s five Children’s Centres provide 1.9% of child care spaces in Waterloo Region for 10.2% of the Children’s Services operating budget.

COVID-19 has created significant challenges for child care in our community, such as lower enrolment and increased costs for child care providers. These challenges are impacting the sustainability of some child care programs. Additional funding, beyond currently committed federal and provincial funding, is now required to maintain child care spaces.

Currently, it is estimated that approximately 2,000 licensed child care spaces for children ages zero to four years are vacant. 

As the designated service system manager for licensed early learning and child care by the province, the Region of Waterloo is responsible for overseeing quality, affordable care in approximately 14,000 child care spaces through licensed centre and home child care programs.

In addition to supporting affected families and staff, Children’s Services will develop a comprehensive funding redistribution plan. The funding redistribution plan will address the priorities of affordability, sustainability, access and quality. This plan will be informed by significant engagement with the community and will align with the local service system plan that is currently under redevelopment.

 

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For media enquiries, please contact:

TJ Flynn, Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Region of Waterloo

tjflynn@regionofwaterloo.ca