Ontario’s child care sector includes thousands of individual centres, but looking only at the number of centres can obscure an important part of how child care is actually delivered across the province: a significant share of Ontario’s child care capacity is concentrated within a relatively small number of multisite organizations.
New Ontario-wide data examined by Building Blocks for Child Care (B2C2) helps illustrate just how important these organizations are to the child care system — and provides important context for interpreting the findings of our 2026 B2C2 Child Care Operators’ Survey (which will be shared soon).
A small number of organizations provide a large share of child care
There are 6,034 child care centres in Ontario, operated by 2,167 child care groups or organizations. Most operators are relatively small. Seventy percent operate only one centre, while another 21% operate between two and four centres.
That means only about 9% of child care organizations — 194 organizations — operate five or more centres. For this analysis, we refer to these organizations as multisite child care groups.
Despite representing only a small proportion of organizations, multisite groups account for a remarkable share of Ontario’s child care capacity. Together, these 194 organizations provide 62% of all child care spaces in Ontario and 54% of all spaces for children aged 0–5.
In other words, just 9% of Ontario’s child care organizations provide more than half of the province’s child care capacity.
Multisite organizations are important across auspices
The role of multisite operators differs across the not-for-profit, public and for-profit sectors.
Of Ontario’s 194 multisite groups, 139 are not-for-profit, 16 are public sector and 39 are for-profit. Within the not-for-profit sector, multisite organizations provide 64% of all spaces for children aged 0–5. In the public child care sector, the concentration is even greater: multisite groups provide 74% of 0–5 spaces. Among for-profit operators, multisite groups provide 45% of the sector’s 0–5 spaces.
These numbers demonstrate why the experiences and decisions of multisite operators matter to the entire child care system. When organizations responsible for such a large share of capacity expand, contract, open or close centres, the effects can extend well beyond an individual operator or community.
CWELCC participation also differs across sectors
The Ontario-wide data also reveal differences in participation in the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system.
Among the 199,583 spaces for children aged 0–5 in the not-for-profit sector, 98% are in CWELCC. In the public sector, 89% of 28,725 spaces are participating.
Participation is lower among for-profit spaces. Of the 115,721 spaces for children aged 0–5 in the for-profit sector, 77% are in CWELCC.
These differences are particularly important when considering where future child care growth may occur and how changes affecting different types of operators could influence the overall availability of affordable child care.
Important context for our 2026 Operators’ Survey
This Ontario-wide picture also helps us understand the composition of responses to the 2026 B2C2 Child Care Operators’ Survey.
Our survey received many responses from multisite not-for-profit and public operators, as well as smaller not-for-profit, public and for-profit operators. However, there is an important gap: Ontario’s largest for-profit multisite organizations are not represented in the survey.
There are approximately 39 for-profit multisite groups in Ontario. Only four for-profit multisite operators responded to our survey, and each operates only five or six centres. None of the largest for-profit chains responded.
This matters because some of these organizations operate dozens of Ontario child care centres. Their absence means that findings from our survey about the for-profit sector should be interpreted with this limitation in mind.
Why multisite operators matter for child care growth
Ontario’s child care system is undergoing significant change as governments work to expand access to affordable child care. Understanding who actually operates the province’s child care capacity is therefore essential.
The numbers show that multisite organizations have a disproportionate role. Although they represent only 9% of child care organizations, they operate 62% of all child care spaces and more than half of spaces serving children aged 0–5.
Whatever happens within this relatively small group of organizations — particularly decisions about expansion, participation in CWELCC and the sustainability of existing programs — can therefore have significant consequences for child care growth across Ontario.
Read our visual report below for a closer look at Ontario’s multisite child care sector and what these data mean for interpreting the 2026 B2C2 Child Care Operators’ Survey (shared soon).