Photo: Centre Éducatif L’Équinoxe/countyofrenfrewelcc.com
The majority of licensed child care agencies in the County of Renfrew have signed up for the $10 a day daycare program. Child care fees in Ontario are set to drop to $10 a day by September of 2025 as part of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement. Laura LePine, the Director of Community Services for the County of Renfrew says 28 of the 30 licensed child care agencies in the region (including the City of Pembroke) are signed up.
LePine says parents have already seen a 25% reduction in fees and at the end of December fees will drop once again.
LePine says the fees will be reduced again by another 37% to 50% this month. The Director of Community Services says the two child care facilities who didn’t sign up for the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program didn’t see a benefit.
While the intake process for the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement is currently closed, LePine expects it to reopen sometime in 2023.
The Director of Community Services encourages unlicensed child care agencies that want to become licensed to reach out to the County of Renfrew Child Care and Early Years department directly.
(written by: Rudy Kadlec)