Child Care Must Be a 2026 Municipal Election Issue

When candidates ask for our votes in Ontario’s 2026 municipal and school board elections, they will talk about housing, homelessness, taxes, roads and transit. We should ask them about early learning and child care too.

Early learning and child care is often treated as a federal or provincial responsibility—especially since the introduction of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system. But whether families can actually find affordable, high-quality care is also shaped by decisions made close to home.

Municipal governments plan neighbourhoods, approve development, own land and buildings and finance infrastructure. Ontario’s 47 child care service system managers—Consolidated Municipal Service Managers (CMSMs) and District Social Services Administration Boards (DSSABs)—plan local services, administer funding and fee subsidies, oversee Special Needs Resourcing and help determine where new spaces are created.

School boards own schools and land across Ontario and already host many child care and before-and-after-school programs. Their decisions can also open—or close—the door to expansion.

These local institutions cannot solve every problem in Ontario’s child care system. But they have far more power to act than is often acknowledged. The 2026 elections are our opportunity to ask how they will use it.

Affordability without access is not enough

CWELCC has dramatically reduced fees for families fortunate enough to secure a participating licensed space. But an affordable space that does not exist—or that a family cannot access—is no help at all.

Ontario has committed to creating 86,000 new licensed spaces for children under six above 2019 levels by the end of 2026. Each one needs land or a building, capital, approvals, a viable operator and qualified educators. Expansion must also reach families and neighbourhoods with the greatest need—not simply those in which development is easiest.

The challenge extends beyond children under six. Families face high fees and shortages in before-and-after-school and school-age programs. Children with special needs may be unable to participate without adequate staffing and supports. Low-income families can be shut out when subsidies are unavailable or subsidized spaces are not located where they live and work.

Access, inclusion and quality must therefore be treated as seriously as affordability.

What municipal councils and service system managers can do

Candidates should support a local expansion plan with measurable targets. It should commit municipalities and service system managers to:

Expand access for low-income families. Increase fee subsidies, locate subsidized spaces where they are most needed and improve processes to give priority to subsidized families.
Make public land and buildings available. Identify suitable municipal sites and offer them to non-profit and public operators on affordable, long-term leases.
Make early learning and child care part of every new neighbourhood. Use the strongest available planning and development tools to require major new housing projects to include properly designed child care space supplied by the developer. Plan it from the beginning—not after families move in.
Work with school boards. Inventory underused schools and surplus land that could accommodate child care, including modular centres. Waterloo Region’s partnership with its district school board, which created 176 spaces on school sites, shows what local collaboration can achieve.
Provide affordable capital. Use municipal borrowing and debentures, where available, to finance viable non-profit and public expansion. Grants, loans and loan guarantees can also turn stalled proposals into functioning centres.
Reduce school-age fees. Fund lower fees for before-and-after-school and school-age care, closing the gap for children not covered by CWELCC reductions. (Some SSMs are already doing this).
Guarantee meaningful inclusion. Fund Special Needs Resourcing and other supports so children with disabilities and other additional needs can secure a space and participate fully.
Protect and improve quality. Use funding agreements, monitoring and professional supports to ensure every publicly funded program provides inclusive, high-quality care. Expansion cannot justify lower standards.
Remove unnecessary local delays. Coordinate planning, permitting and approvals, and help community operators navigate development.
Report publicly on progress. Publish data on waitlists, neighbourhood shortages, subsidies, inclusion, planned spaces, timelines and results.

These actions do not replace the need for strong provincial and federal funding, fair workforce compensation and policies that enable non-profit and public expansion. But advocacy to other governments should accompany—not replace—local action.

School board elections matter too

School trustees should also be expected to have a child care platform.

Schools are public assets located where children and families live. Boards should make unused or underused rooms available for licensed child care on workable terms and examine school land for purpose-built or modular facilities. New schools and major renovations should include child care from the design stage.

Trustees should insist that boards plan for children’s full day—not only classroom hours. Before-and-after-school programs are essential infrastructure for working parents. Where no suitable operator is available, boards should be prepared to operate these programs directly.

Voters can ask trustee candidates whether they will:

require an inventory of schools and school lands suitable for child care;
offer school space to non-profit operators through transparent, affordable processes;
include licensed child care in new schools and major capital projects;
support modular child care on appropriate school sites;
ensure sufficient before-and-after-school spaces; and
support direct board operation when community provision is inadequate.

Turn the elections into a child care conversation

Other communities have shown how this can work. Before Prince Edward County’s 2022 municipal election, PEC Needs Child Care surveyed candidates and published their responses, then continued its advocacy with council. Child Care Now Alberta similarly sought public commitments during Alberta’s 2025 municipal elections.

Ontario parents, operators, educators, advocates and community organizations can do the same: survey candidates, raise child care at debates, share families’ experiences and publish candidates’ answers.

The questions can be straightforward:

Where are our greatest child care shortages, and what will you do about them?
How will you increase access to subsidized spaces for low-income families?
Will you require child care space in major new housing developments?
Which municipal or school properties could become new centres?
Will you support municipal debentures or other low-cost financing for non-profit and public expansion?
How will you reduce school-age fees and expand before-and-after-school care?
How will you ensure children with special needs receive the supports they require?
What will you do to ensure that all publicly funded programs are high quality?
What measurable results will you report—and when?

Anyone seeking municipal or school board office should understand the community’s child care needs and have a credible plan to address them.

Child care is community infrastructure

Municipal leaders cannot plan housing, economic development and workforce participation while treating child care as an afterthought. Building homes for young families without planning where their children will receive early learning and care leaves essential infrastructure unfinished.

Election commitments must lead to accountability. If candidates promise land, school space or financing, residents should ask afterward what was made available, how many spaces resulted and when the next projects will begin.

CWELCC has shown what public investment can do. The next challenge is to make affordable, inclusive, high-quality early learning and care genuinely available in every community and for children of every age and ability.

When candidates ask for your vote, ask where the next child care spaces will come from, who will be able to access them, how they will be financed and how quality will be assured.

In 2026, child care must be a municipal and school board election issue—and candidates must be ready to act.