In early 2025, the Ministry of Education released an update to space creation targets for child care across the province. These revised targets adjust both the overall number of new spaces and the expected ratio of non-profit to for-profit spaces in each community.

Of Ontario’s 47 CMSMs and DSSABs:

• 16 municipalities will see their space creation targets increase
• 27 municipalities will see a decrease in their targets
• 4 municipalities will see no change

 The Ministry’s overall target of 60,429 new child care spaces by March 2026 remains unchanged.

This shift comes as the province continues to face challenges in meeting growth expectations under the CWELCC system. B2C2 had previously identified several key barriers slowing expansion:

• A lack of capital funding for construction and renovation
• Insecure  operating revenue to support new spaces
• Ongoing staff shortages due to low wages for RECEs

Since then, some steps have been taken. The Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund was announced and has now been distributed. Each CMSM/DSSAB received a flat $1.5 million, with the remaining $64.6 million distributed proportionally according to each region’s updated space targets. For example:

• Toronto: $19,919,553
• Waterloo Region: $6,282,430
• Algoma: $1,743,343

While this funding is welcome, it is unlikely to meet the full needs of providers looking to expand or create new licensed child care spaces. In many regions, the cost of acquiring land, constructing new facilities, or retrofitting existing ones exceeds the available funding.  Building a new centre can now cost between $4 million and $10 million. There are insufficient funds to enable new builds to occur.

The issue of operating revenue has also seen progress. The Ministry introduced Funding Guidelines in 2025 based on actual operating costs. These guidelines are designed to help stabilize revenue for operators and replace the previous reliance on fluctuating parent fees. While there are still several unresolved issues in the guidelines, they have been generally well-received by the sector.

However, the staffing shortage continues to be a major challenge. Many centres are unable to open existing rooms because they cannot find qualified Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs). The Ministry has increased the base wage to $25.86 in 2025, but this is still significantly below the municipal average of $37.29 as of January 1.

No steps have yet been taken to address the gender wage gap or to align child care wages with those of municipal child care workers, as required under Ontario’s Pay Equity legislation.

The revised targets and new funding represent movement in the right direction, but system growth will remain slow without a strategy that addresses all three issues—capital funding, stable operations, and staffing.

For more information, visit the pdf here.