More families in Peel to benefit from affordable child care

BRAMPTON, Ont. – July 15, 2025 - The Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) plan, also known as $10 a day child care, has already significantly increased the demand for child care in Peel. To address this, Peel’s Early Years and Child Care Services (EYCCS) Division asked the Ministry of Education to allocate more child care spaces, provide capital funding, and allow flexibility to approve more commercial child care spaces to deliver much needed service in the community.

Peel’s advocacy efforts were successful and in March 2025, Peel was granted: 

• 1,672 additional licensed child care spaces to be created by the end of 2026. This means that a total of 13,652 new affordable spaces will be created in Peel between 2022 and 2026.
• Greater flexibility to approve more commercial spaces which allows EYCCS to respond more quickly to child care providers who are ready to expand.
• An additional $29.8 million to implement these changes, including $11.8 million for an Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund to support non-profit child care expansion.

These welcome changes mean that more families with children younger than six years will have access to high-quality, affordable child care. What’s more, many of those families who will benefit are in underserved communities. 

EYCCS staff continue to monitor and put in place strategies to address any challenges that could limit the successful implementation of the CWELCC program.  Challenges include hiring and retaining qualified staff in child care programs, increasing lease costs in community-based child care settings and very short timelines for rolling out the Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund.