Background
On March 28, 2022, the Federal and Provincial Governments announced a funding agreement that will reduce the cost of child care in Ontario to an average of $10 per day by 2025-2026. The Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement includes $13.2 billion for Ontario over six years. This agreement will:
- Allow licensed child care centres and licensed home child care agencies that opt-in to the system in 2022, to reduce parent/caregiver fees for children under the age of six by 25 per cent, retroactive to April 1, 2022. Participating child care operators will further reduce child care fees by 50 per cent, on average, by January 1, 2023. There will be further fee reductions in 2024 and 2025.
- Set a minimum wage floor of $18/hour for Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECE) and $20/hour for RECE supervisors and RECE home visitors retroactive to April 1, 2022, increasing $1 per hour each year until 2026, up to a maximum of $25 per hour.
- Create 86,000 licensed child care spaces in Ontario for children under the age of six by the end of 2026 to meet the growing demand for affordable child care.
Halton Region is working closely with the Ministry of Education and child care providers to implement the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care system to provide more accessible, high-quality child care to families.
Wage Compensation
Child care providers enrolled in the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) System may be eligible for wage compensation funding to support an annual wage increase and a minimum wage floor for eligible staff.
To be eligible for wage compensation funding, staff must be employed in an eligible position by a child care provider that is enrolled in the CWELCC System. Eligible positions include:
- RECE Program Staff
- RECE Child Care Supervisor
- RECE Home Child Care Visitor
Annual Wage Increase
Child care providers enrolled in the CWELCC System are required to increase the hourly wage of eligible staff by $1/hour, plus benefits, on January 1 of each year from 2023 to 2026, up to a maximum of $25 per hour, including Wage Enhancement Grant.
Wage Floor
The minimum hourly wage floor amounts for RECEs were set by the Province of Ontario and came into effect on April 1, 2022. A new minimum wage floor will come into effect on January 1 of each year. The hourly wage floor amounts for 2022-2026 are noted in the table below:
Table: Minimum Hourly Wage Floor 2022 to 2026
| Eligible Positions |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
2026 |
| RECE Program Staff |
$18 |
$19 |
$20 |
$21 |
$22 |
| RECE Child Care Supervisorsor RECE Home Child Care Visitors |
$20 |
$21 |
$22 |
$23 |
$24 |
Minimum Wage Offset
Child care providers enrolled in the CWELCC System may be eligible for minimum wage offset funding for eligible staff.
To be eligible for the minimum wage offset funding, staff must be employed by a child care provider that is participating in the CWELCC System and be in a position as follows:
- Non-RECE Program Staff
- Non-RECE Child Care Supervisor
- Non-RECE Home Child Care Visitor
As of October 1, 2022, child care operators were required to comply with minimum wage legislation and bring the wages of their staff to $15.50 per hour. To offset the minimum wage increase, Halton Region is providing funding to operators enrolled in the CWELCC system to cover the incremental amount needed to bring wages for eligible staff to $15.50/hour.
To be eligible for a minimum wage offset, operators must have employed staff in positions that were earning less than $15.50 per hour on September 30, 2022. Positions created after September 30, 2022, are not eligible.
Please contact please contact our Children’s Services team at childcareservices@halton.ca for questions about wage compensation.