Ontario child care advocates say Canada-Ontario CWELCC extension agreement fails the workforce and parents
Child care advocates, early childhood educators and parents welcomed the announcement of a four-year extension of Ontario’s Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) agreement with the federal government but said they are frustrated that there are no new commitments to strengthen or expand the system.
“While parents and operators may feel relieved today that the expiry of the agreement [on March 31, 2027] has been avoided for now, this deal is a deeply ill-judged compromise,” said Carolyn Ferns, Policy Coordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC).
“Child care expansion generates a net profit for the provincial government in tax revenue. Yet instead of reinvesting those returns to finish the job, this deal freezes parent fees at $22 a day and ends further wage improvements—meaning a loss for ECEs in real dollars,” Ferns added.
The Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) joined OCBCC in criticizing the agreement for failing to address the estimated shortage in Ontario of 10,000 Registered Early Childhood Educators. Both organizations have been calling for years for a publicly funded salary grid starting at $35-$45 per hour for RECEs and $28 per hour for early years staff. Not only does this agreement fail to deliver a wage grid, it stalls even the limited progress that has been made on ECEs’ pay.
“You cannot expand child care spaces without educators to bring them alive, and modest wage improvements have not been high enough to address the workforce crisis,” said Amber Straker, Executive Director of the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO). “Stagnating wages and operating without a competitive wage grid sets up child care expansion to fail, and parent waitlists will keep growing. Once hailed as ‘the heart of the system’, the child care workforce counts and their wages matter; they deserve decent work, benefits, and professional pay.”
At a media conference September 29, 2026, announcing the agreement, federal Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu said the federal government will transfer $12 billion to Ontario over the four-year period. Additionally, Ontario will receive its share of a two-year injection of $5.4 billion this year and next announced by the federal government a few months ago. While the increase in funding represents a very large transfer, the federal government is not requiring anything of the Ontario government beyond the new licensed spaces it promised to create by March 31, 2026. Ontario will not be lowering its fees to an average of $10aDay even though seven other provinces have already met that goal.
“Parents fought for $10aDay child care, not an endless pause at $22,” said Ferns. “Halting fee reductions and failing to fix the staffing crisis treats child care as a luxury rather than a fundamental right for our children and a driver of our economy.”
The OCBCC and AECEO are calling on the federal and provincial governments to immediately revise their trajectory by adopting the policy interventions laid out in the Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario:
- Immediately continue wage improvements for RECEs and fund a comprehensive provincial wage grid ($35-$45 per hour for RECEs; $28 per hour for non-RECE staff) with pensions and benefits.
- Resume the path to a maximum $10aDay cap for all families, with a low-barrier sliding fee scale.
- Impose a permanent moratorium on new for-profit licensing and implement an “asset lock” to ensure public funds build permanent public and non-profit assets.
- Commit to a full 5-year bilateral agreement with a new action plan, backed by increased federal and provincial investment to ensure long-term stability for children, families, and the workforce.