New Expansion Guidelines and Spaces Announced by Ministry of Education

Apologies for the late posting of this information, but when the rest of us were doing our last-minute food preparation and Christmas shopping, the Ministry decided to announce the number and method of space expansion for the next five years.

There are still a lot of questions to be answered about the specifics of the expansion program and we’d be very interested in your questions and observations. Prior to the Webinar on January 5th, we’re hoping to get more clarification from the Ministry.

In its release, the Ministry does recommit to the “at least 70% not-for-profit and no more than 30% for-profit spaces by the March 31, 2026”. So, we can remind ourselves that the new for-profit spaces that were already built by the time of the signing of the Agreement and the new for-profit spaces that were “in the pipeline” gave us a total of 20,742 new for-profit spaces. If there are going to be a total of 76,700 total spaces by March 31, 2026, and at least 70% will be non-profit or public, the maximum number of for-profit spaces can be 23,010.

That means there can be no more than 2,268 additional spaces in for profits from now until March 31, 2026, beyond those already built or already in the pipeline towards licensing at the time of the signing of the Agreement.

That’s about 28 new for-profit child care centres at average size of 80 spaces. Or less than 1 additional for-profit centre per CMSM/DSSAB. There are 47 CMSM/DSSABs in Ontario. Let’s make sure that this is a promise kept!!

View the memo to CMSM/DSSABs Access and Inclusion Framework and Notional Space Targets

View the memo to licensees CWELCC Update – Enrolment and Growth in 2023