City’s home child care costs approved

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After establishing the City of Stratford Home Child Care Program in March, city council has approved the prices for the new licenced child care agency.

The approval came at the July 27 regular council meeting without debate.

Infants up to the age of two will cost parents $22 a day, from ages two to three they will cost $21.33 a day, from ages four to six they will cost $18.42 a day ($12 for before or after school care) and children aged six to twelve will have varied costs.

Before or after care will cost $14.50 ($26.50 for both), $42 for care up to 10 hours, $52 for up to 18 hours and $72 for up to 23 hours.

According to a March staff report, the intent for the new agency is to establish 15 homes under supervision of the agency and a full-time home child-care visitor. Each home may support six children total and can be located in Stratford, St. Marys or Perth County, for a total of 90 spaces in the region. Through the new Stratford Home Child Care Program, the home daycares may be licenced, making them eligible for the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system.

These spaces are meant to significantly bolster the city’s child care spaces, which are lacking.

Late last year and early this year, 88 licenced spaces were open. Additionally, 106 spaces are also scheduled to open this year. Despite that recent surge, licenced child care remains a sore point for many area parents. According to a late-2025 report, on average only about 16 per cent of area children up to the age of five have access to licenced, full-time child care.

The gap in coverage is not unique to the area, nor to just the province. According to an October 2025 report from Stats Canada, 58 per cent of children up to the age of five were in child care. About half of those parents reported difficulty finding that care, up slightly from the last time that metric was measured in 2023 (46 per cent).

Finding available care was the main challenge (65 per cent of parents), followed by finding affordable child care (42 per cent of parents) and finding subsidized child care (35 per cent of parents).

The Province of Ontario has set a provincial access rate target of 37 per cent by 2026, a target that is unlikely to be met, and even if it is a large portion of parents in the area will remain without access to care.

Stratford was given a goal of 461 CWELCC spaces for children aged zero to five for its service area. The city has 261 CWELCC spaces remaining under its directed growth targets and if all targets are met, the area will have a maximum access rate of 29 per cent.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, there were 1,772 children aged zero to five on the waitlist for licenced child care.