Children's Services

Fee Subsidy

• Hastings County can support making child care more affordable for families with low and moderate income, by offering a Child Care Fee Subsidy that reduces the amount of money that families have to pay licensed child care providers to care for their child(ren).  Parents who are eligible under the provisions of the income test may be eligible for fee subsidies for children 12 years of age or under. Fee subsidy funds can be used to support full and part-time child care in licensed child care centres, licensed home child care agencies, camps, and extended day programs (before and after school programs and non-instructional days). 

General Operating Grant 

• The purpose of GOG is to support the costs of operating licensed child care programs to reduce wait times and fees for services; stabilize service levels; and where funds allow, improve access to high quality affordable early learning and child care services for children and their families.  GOG consists of funding for wages and eligible operational expenditures; the funding to support wages is to be used to enhance staff salaries, and the system priorities funding is to be used to support individual child care program goals. 

• Ontario’s Action Plan for implementing the CWELCC system includes providing capital start-up grants to support the creation of new spaces in targeted regions, and for underserviced communities and populations
  Start-up grants can be used to offset the initial costs required to expand or create spaces in these region, such as equipment and leasehold improvements. The grants are available to support community-based capital projects and exclude capital projects for child care programs that run during school hours for kindergarten and school-aged children. Start-up funding may be used for retrofits, renovations, or expansion projects, but cannot be used to purchase land or buildings. Hastings County approval of capital start up grant funding will take into consideration: 
  - Local Child Care Plans 
  - Accommodation pressures/service gaps and demand
  - Cost Effectiveness 
  - Location
  - Available Operating Funding
  - Capacity of program to access fund through other means
  - Program budget and financial history 
  - Child Care licensing history 
  - Current licensed and operational capacity 
  - Age groups
  - Long-term Viability
  - Investment in quality programs 

Wage Enhancement

• The Ontario government recognized the need for wage enhancement/HCCEG to assist with retaining RECEs, and support access to stable, high-quality child care programs for children in Ontario. The Wage Enhancement Grant (WEG) will continue to support an increase of up to $2 per hour, plus 17.5% benefits for eligible centre-based staff and home visitors. In addition, the 2022 Home Child Care Enhancement Grant (HCCWEG) continues to support an increase of up to $20 per day for home child care providers contracted with a licensed home child care agency.

Canada-Wide Early Learning Child Care (CWELCC)

• Funding under the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement (CWELCC) will be used to build and leverage the success of Ontario’s existing Early Learning and Child Care System by increasing quality, accessibility, affordability, and inclusivity in Early Learning and Child Care, towards achieving the objectives of: 
  • Providing a 25% fee reduction retroactive to April 1, 2022, building to a 50% reduction in average parent costs (based on 2020 levels) for licensed Early Learning and Child Care by January 2023 and reaching an average parent fee of $10 a day by 2025-26 for licensed child care spaces 
  • Creating 86,000 new high-quality, affordable licensed child care spaces (relative to 2019 levels), predominantly though not-for-profit licensed child care 
  • Addressing barriers to provide inclusive child care 
  • Valuing the early childhood workforce and providing them with training and development opportunities
• The CWELCC System supports the provision of child care programs licensed under the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014, (CCEYA) located in the County of Hastings. 
  Eligible licensed programs include: 
  • Programs for any child under six (6) years, and up until June 30 in a calendar year; 
    • any child who turns six (6) years old between January 1 and June 30 in that calendar year; and is enrolled in a licensed infant, toddler, preschool or kindergarten group, a licensed family age group or home child care, as defined in the CCEYA.
• All Licensees with programs serving children under the age of 6 (or turning 6 before June 30) in Ontario are eligible to apply to participate in the CWELCC System. Participation in the CWELCC System is optional; however, Licensees are encouraged to participate and CMSMs are encouraged to enroll Licensees so that families can benefit from fee reductions.