Child care costs have dropped sharply across Canada since 2022, but for many families, lower fees have not led into better access as daycare waitlists grow and early childhood educator shortages stall system expansion.
Makwa Tenasco began searching for child care as soon as his son was born, only to find out many families add their names to waitlists before the child is even born. By the time Tenasco registered his son, he was far behind other applicants.
As a result, “there was no accessibility to registered daycares, and it was hard to find anything but a home daycare,” said Tenasco.
He enrolled his son in a home daycare for $58 a day, a rate he described as “standard” in Ottawa.
In October 2025, child-care services declined nearly 33 per cent over the last four years after the introduction of the federal Early Learning and Child Care program, based on a Capital Current analysis of data Statistics Canada uses to track prices goods and services.
Average monthly parental costs for full-time, centre-based care for children up to five years fell from $663 in 2022 to $435 in 2025.
Alicia Klosowski faced similar challenges after returning to Canada from abroad. She needed care when her daughter turned one so she could return to work, but could not find any openings.
“We were scrambling,” she said.
Klosowski delayed her return to work until her daughter was 14 months old when she eventually secured a spot at 18 months at a centre she had been “really pushing for.”
She now pays $22 a day, far below the $50 to $75 she had originally expected to pay.
The disparity between affordability and access has become a defining frustration for parents across Ontario.
Amber Straker, executive director of the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, says the drop in fees has pushed demand far higher than governments anticipated.
“Now that fees are so much more affordable, there’s been a very serious increase in demand,” Straker said.
A shortage of early childhood educators
Ontario’s auditor general says the province is short 10,000 early childhood educators, leaving more than 80,000 licensed spaces closed because centres can’t hire enough staff.
Straker said wages remain a key barrier. Ontario’s wage floor for registered educators was $18 an hour and, although many saw increases of up to $5 an hour, the sector struggles to retain staff.
“Until we have proper working conditions and professional wages, [early childhood educators] won’t be staying within this system,” she said.
Carolyn Ferns, public policy co-ordinator at the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, said in an email to Capital Current that solving the workforce shortage is the only way to shrink wait lists. To make early childhood education a sustainable career, a provincewide wage grid should start between $35 and $45 an hour, including benefits and pensions, she says.
“For families and workers to count on affordable child care, educator shortages must be addressed first,” Ferns said.
Demand grows
Despite reduced costs, 31 per cent of families with children aged under five reported being on a waitlist in 2025, the highest level recorded.
Child-care operators say they can’t keep up with rising demand. Kim Hiscott, CEO of Andrew Fleck Children’s Services, said her organization has several expansion projects in mind, but cannot proceed without reliable funding.
“We can’t even conceive of opening more centres unless we get confirmation that there’s going to be operating funding,” Hiscott said.
Andrew Fleck Children’s Services supports more than 1,300 children across Ottawa in licensed group care sites, with another 600 enrolled in its licensed home childcare program.
A Capital Current analysis has found the primary age group on the waitlist for childcare are those under a year old, however the percentage of all children up to five years old, other than those not in school, has grown substantially from the year prior.
Although Tenasco said he’s content with the care and one-on-one attention his child receives at their home daycare, he said the experience doesn’t match what a licensed centre could offer, especially the structured play-based learning he originally wanted.
“It’s just a different vibe than going somewhere where you learn through play,” he said.
Home daycare hours are often less flexible and closures for sick days and vacations leave parents with few options.
Tenasco said he would prefer a registered daycare, but securing a spot in Ottawa has become a waiting game. His son has been on the waitlist for more than two years, and when he called a centre that had a vacancy, staff told him he was number 431 on the waitlist.
Although Tenasco would prefer to pay the subsidized $22 a day rate available under the federal program, that isn’t possible without access to a registered centre.
“It’s definitely more affordable, less accessible,” Tenasco said. “It’s hard to be optimistic when everything seems pitted against you.”
As governments negotiate the future of the national program, families remain stuck between lower fees and limited access.
Tenasco continues to wait.
“My name will stay on the list,” he said. “I’m still hopeful.”
