Changes to child care fees

The way child care fees are calculated has changed for families receiving a child care subsidy.

Child care fees are now calculated per child, instead of per family. The overall fee that families pay will not be changing.

Families no longer pay one family child care fee to one child care location unless all children are attending the same location. Families with children who attend different locations, are required to pay a child care fee to each location their children attend.

How this affects you

If your children attend different child care locations:

The amount of your total child care fee has not changed.The only change is how your total child care fee is divided between your children and what locations you pay your child care fees to.
You are required to pay individual child care fees to each child care location where each of your children attend.
The emails from your Children’s Services Worker tells you your child care fee per child and which child care location you need to pay your fees to.
Your child care providers will tell you when and how to start paying any changes to your fees

If your children all attend the same child care location:

There are changes to how you pay your child care fee.
Your total child care fee is now equally distributed among your children.
The email from your Children’s Services Worker tells you the breakdown of your child care fee by child. No action is required from you.

If you do not pay a child care fee for your family or have only one child, you will not see any changes.

If child care is no longer needed

If one or more of your children withdraws from care, their child care fee will be distributed among the children who remain in care as you still need to pay your total child care fee.

Why is this change being made

This change keeps the child care subsidy program in compliance with the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program.

Under the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program, children between 0 and 5 years of age are eligible to receive a lower child care fee but children 6 years and older are not.