Ontario space creation targets set for CWELCC
On March 31, 2025, the Ontario government informed the province’s municipal child care service managers of revised space creation targets under the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program, and spelled out the distribution of capital funding financed through federal government’s Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund.
The Ontario government’s new guidelines and funding allocations will support the creation of 60,429 new spaces by the end of 2026.
Of the 47 Ontario municipal service managers, 16 will be allocated funding for more licensed spaces than previously announced while 27 will see their allocation reduced as a result of a “recalibration exercise” carried out by the Ontario government to meet its target of 86,000 net new CWELCC spaces by the end of 2026.
70% to be non-for-profit child care overall but for-profit child care on the rise in most regions
The Ontario government’s memo to operators says that by the end of 2026, 70 per cent, or more, of all licensed spaces for children aged 0-5 will be operated by non-for-profit or public providers, down only slightly from 71 per cent at the end of 2023. Looking at the 47 SSMs, between December 2023 and December 2026 the proportion of for-profit spaces is projected to increase in 24 regions, decrease in 11 regions and stay the same in 12 regions.
It’s important to note that the not-for-profit spaces include some for-profit family home childcare licensees, which have been deemed not-for-profit under the CWELCC agreement. In Ontario licensed child care providers/licensees are contracted under an agency, which can be either not-for-profit or for-profit. The providers/licensees themselves operate as independent contractors.
Approximately a dozen (of 47) system service managers project 100% of new spaces created to be not-for-profit, and the following four project that all their spaces will be not-for-profit by December 2026:
- City of Stratford
- District of Timiskaming Social Services Administrations Board
- Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board, and
- Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board.
Conversely, some system service managers are shifting to more for-profit spaces.
- Dufferin County’s revised target is for 25% of new spaces between 2023 to 2026 to be not-for-profit, and 75% to be for-profit. This is projected to result in an increase from 44% to 50% of spaces being for-profit at the end 2026.
- In Simcoe County, the revised 3-year target for not-for-profit spaces is projected to result in an increase in for-profit spaces from 35% to 40% between 2023 and 2026.
- The Regional Municipality of Peel is also projected to see an increase in the balance of for-profit spaces, with 54% of new spaces allocated to the for-profit sector, which is projected to result in an increase from 45% to 48% of total spaces by 2026.
ELCC Infrastructure Funds distributed to service system managers
Ontario’s released Infrastructure Fund Guidelines provides information on how the province is distributing federal funds it received through the federal Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund.
Every municipal system service manager will receive a base allocation of $1.5 million from the total Ontario funding envelope of approximately $135.1 million for 2025. The remaining $64.6 million will be distributed based on each system service manager’s revised expansion targets for 2025-26.
The City of Toronto will receive the highest amount of infrastructure funding at $19.9 million, followed by the Regional Municipality of Peel which will receive almost $11.8 million.
Total child care allocations revised
Total funding allocations to the system service managers were also revised to reflect changes to cost-based operational funding allocations under the new Ontario funding formula that came into effect January 2025, revised Start-up grants and the implementation of the ELCC Infrastructure Fund.
Read more about the reallocation and funding guidelines
Memo from the Ontario Ministry of Education, Early Years and Child Care Division