Ontario has stripped some checks and balances from its funding rules, which observers say threatens to compromise the ambitious child-care program.
Lecce declined an interview request for this story and did not directly respond to specific questions.
Siriboe and the for-profit owners she represents are not backing down. Reducing red tape and removing the constraints on profit-making are essential, she said, to remain viable while participating in the program, which needs all child-care operators — including for-profits — to meet its expansion goals.
Federal officials, who designed the program to fund primarily non-profit expansion, faced the challenge of accommodating existing for-profits if they had any hope of achieving their ambitious expansion targets. With the province pledging to add 86,000 spaces by the end of 2026, more than 25,000 of those spaces can be for-profit.
“The sky’s the limit,” said David Macdonald, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives who publishes an annual study on child-care fees across the country. “People felt, OK, well, maybe this is a somewhat undesirable deal. It doesn’t really reflect fully the federal intentions … but maybe we can live with it,” he said. Now, after Ontario’s revised guidelines removed limits on profit-making and other accountability measures, he added, “that’s all out the window.”
In an interview, the three directors of the Ontario Association of Independent Childcare Centres said they view the federal government’s overarching vision for child care — which explicitly prioritizes non-profits — as “predatory” toward small businesses. They said joining the program under the original funding guidelines the province released in April would bankrupt them, which they believe is actually the federal government’s intention.
Moser, who runs Blossoming Minds Learning Centre, a for-profit daycare in Toronto’s Danforth neighbourhood, said profits allow owner-operators to reimburse themselves for the money they invested to establish their businesses. She hoped the Star’s story would not paint the association’s members — most of whom are owner-operators — as “greedy.”
“If you were managing your business well before, you should be able to manage your business just fine under the ,” said Michele Lupa, executive director of Mothercraft, a Toronto-based non-profit daycare with several locations. “It does require more accountability, there’s no question, and I think, perhaps, that might be the crux of the concern.”
The campaign’s website and the letters sent by parents express general concerns about the viability of daycares that join the program. The directors of the association told the Star that the limits on “undue profits” and list of ineligible expenses were “the most offensive” parts of the original funding guidelines.
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