Thank you for inviting me to speak today.
My name is Maggie Moser. I'm a member of the board of the Ontario Association of Independent Childcare Centres, which represents the small business owners—mainly women—of for-profit, licensed child care centres. These centres are not home child care centres, but rather larger facilities that comprise about 30% of all licensed child care spots in Ontario.
The CWELCC program has not delivered good value for taxpayers and does not meet Canadian standards of equity. The implementation provides undue benefits to higher-income families, who are sailing their yachts on the tides of the program, while those who need it most are left drowning.
Lower-income families were excluded from obtaining access to the CWELCC child care spots. Families who could already afford the fees of their centre were the ones who benefited from the rebates and discounts, while the rest were left behind on a long wait-list.
The program created a systemic barrier to lower-income families and thus also to racialized groups. Public funding is not being used for the stated purpose, which was a solution for the “she-cession” to make it possible for women to return to work and boost our economy. The original intent is not being carried out.
Based on wait-lists, it could take two to three years at least to achieve what should have been the main objective, which is to provide lower-cost child care to those who most need it and thus facilitate a return to work for these women. The program adds many costly layers of administration, which diverts funds that should be reaching families. The complexity and costs of flowing money through complicated cost-based formulas to centres, which then fund parents through discounted fees, adds even more administration, which wastes valuable resources.
Our members, who are mainly female small business owners, have been asked to provide their centres' facilities for the use of the CWELCC system without a recognition of the investments and sweat equity they have made at a time when the government was not creating the child care needed. Many of these centres have never received any government funding and have invested their life savings into their child care centres while being lumped into a category together with large corporate chains. We ask that they be treated fairly and with respect for their historic contribution.
Licensed child care centres across Canada—profit and non-profit—have been facing hardship under the CWELCC program, and many are being taken over by large corporate chains. Centres going out of business are not being purchased by the public sector. This does not benefit families, does not strengthen the system, does not increase the stated goal of maintaining mainly non-profit care and does not further the goal of raising the quality of child care in Canada.
We need a national program that overcomes these biased, discriminatory and fiscally irresponsible factors. We respectfully ask that funding of this program be reallocated as follows.
Increase the funding and expand the income range to the existing subsidy system to increase the number of lower-income and middle-income families who receive full or partial subsidy.
Adequately fund the building of new centres to create downward pressure on fees and enable more women to go back to work.
Increase the amount that can be deducted from income taxes so that parents can deduct the full costs of the child care they pay.
Recognize that for a woman to go back to work, child care fees are the cost of doing business in enabling them to go back into the workforce.
Recognize the extreme pressure on staffing, created mostly from inflation and the pressure created through the increased demand now for high-quality early childhood educators. The amounts allocated for specific staff wage increases are inadequate and insulting to the staff who kept our economy going throughout COVID. We see the resulting great shortages of staff, both ECEs and assistants, across the child care sector. We certainly support a workforce strategy to raise salaries.
Please recognize the contribution of independent small businesses in providing licensed child care at a time when child care was desperately needed over the years, and ensure that funding is structured to support for-profit small businesses.
Thank you for your time. I welcome your questions.