THUNDER BAY – Changes to Ontario’s daycare funding formula could mean municipal programs will bear a $54,000 shortfall this year with greater costs to come.
As of January, the province began to implement a four-year shift from funding licensed daycare spaces to only funding only those spaces that are filled.
Filled space funding will make up 25 per cent of provincial daycare revenues versus 75 per cent funding for total licensed spaces in 2016. It will shift 25 per cent per year until 2019 when 100 per cent of daycare funding will be based on the program’s actual use.
A District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board report written in August 2014 foresaw the policy change would result in a $473,000 decline in its general operating budget across the district this year.
Despite waiting lists for municipally-run daycares in Thunder Bay, the city’s community, older adults and child care centres manager Emma Westover estimates the change will leave the department two per cent short in funding this year.
“You have maybe a family that has left the childcare centre and you have that opening and it takes some time to then fill, so you have that gap period of time, yet it’s a licensed space,” Westover said.
“The other part is we have spaces that we’re licensed for but we don’t have the staff in order to actually bring in children to fill all those licenses.”
Westover added her department is seeking other revenue sources but the municipality would any absorb any cost overrun. If Thunder Bay’s costs remain constant through 2019 when the shift is complete, daycare will be running more than $200,000 over budget annually.
“It is a big hit but I’m hoping there are other ways we can come at that,” Westover said.
“When (DSSAB) met with us, they seemed very open to how they bridge that gap between the license piece and the operating capacity, being aware we have these wait lists. We do have the children there essentially to fill those spots.”
The change could hit the district’s smaller communities even harder.
On Apr. 11, Greenstone Council deferred a decision to close its 10-space daycare in Nakina, which is projected to lose $8,000 in 2016.
When added to funding decreases for its Geraldton and Longlac programs, the municipality expects to face a $14,100 bill this year and $79,120 per year by 2019. Greenstone already pays more than a third of the program’s $750,000 budget to supplement DSSAB funding.
The Nakina program, which operates 66 kilometres north of the closest daycare centre in Geraldton, currently serves an average of 1.5 children each month.
“We see the under-utilization but those families don’t have any other options,” said Greenstone director of community services, Nancy Proteau.
“You only have to look at school enrolment to know there are less children here than there were. In smaller communities, sometimes the licensed program is the only option. In other locales, there’s an option of placing the child in another program.
“That doesn’t happen here.”
