Photo: Leaps & Bounds Before and After Program - St. Joseph Arnprior/countyofrenfrewelcc.com/
The 2023 Child Care and Early Years budget for the County of Renfrew is $17.5-million.
An update was provided to the Community Services Committee on January 10th by Margo Smith, the Manager of the Child Care and Early Years Division.
Smith says there are currently 30 licensed child care programs in the County, which includes 28 child care centres and 2 licensed home child care agencies with a total of 2,196 licensed spaces.
Smith highlighted a number of programs and responsibilities of the Child Care and Early Years Division include.
- Management of Fee Subsidy funding, which assists eligible families with the cost of licensed child care for children up to 13 years of age. Fee subsidy supports eligible families by paying up to 100% of the child care costs.
- Direct operation of a Licensed Home Child Care Agency which supports home providers across the county to become licensed to operate child care within their home. There are currently 7 active homes – four in Pembroke, one in Haley Station, one in Eganville, and one in Arnprior.
- Direct operation of Inclusion Services (Special Needs Resourcing) which supports licensed providers across the County of Renfrew so that children with varying needs and abilities can attend their programs.
- Provide funding and oversite of the EarlyON Child and Family Centres throughout the County that provide free, high-quality programming for families and children from birth to 6 years of age. There are 6 stationary EarlyON programs, located in Deep River, Petawawa, one in Pembroke, Renfrew, and Arnprior, including a Francophone EarlyON in Pembroke. There are also 2 mobile units that move throughout the County, the toy bus based out of the Killaloe area serving rural areas and an Indigenous Led EarlyON.
- Implementation of the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care System which is the federal/provincial agreement for licensed child care programs to provide an average of $10 – $12 per day child care fee by 2025-26 for children up to age 6. The County of Renfrew has signed agreements with 28 out of the 30 licensed child care agencies to enroll in the program.
Whitewater Region Mayor Neil Nicholson says there’s a huge demand for child care and asked what else can be done at the county level or lower tier level to encourage and ensure additional child care spaces are generated. Nicholson says he was advised by a resident in Beachburg they are 150th on the waitlist for a spot for a newborn to receive childcare in Pembroke.
Director of Social Services Laura LePine says the province is looking to create more child care spaces, but adds a big challenge is staffing with a shortage of early childhood educators.
The Community Services Committee is recommending that County Council enter into a funding agreement with the Ministry of Education. The County of Renfrew will receive $8.8-million for child care, $1.5-million for EarlyON programming, $157,786 for Child Care and Early Years Workforce, $6.8-million for the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care System and $212,095 for Indigenous-Led Child Care and Child and Family Programs which makes up the $17.5-million budget.
(written by: Rudy Kadlec)