When a daycare owner in Scotland, Ont., opened her business, she was prepared to welcome 45 children — but she is facing frustration and empty highchairs due to a lack of spots in a subsidy program. Rebeca Appleman, the owner of Little Apples Child Care, said she is licenced to care for 45 children, including six infants, 15 toddlers and 24 preschool-aged kids. However, she only has four children enrolled, all in her preschool room. Appleman said she wants to fill every open spot, but she has to charge a price most parents can’t afford. “We’re charging a flat rate that works out to about $65 a day, and that’s just to meet our bottom line,” she explained. When she opened two months ago, she had hoped to join the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) subsidy program. The plan was designed to lower child care fees while still supporting child care owners and workers. Currently, centres enrolled in the program in Ontario offer spaces for an average of $22 a day per child. The City of Brantford oversees the program in the County of Brant, where Scotland is located. Appleman said when she first started the process to open her daycare she was told even if she wasn’t accepted into CWELCC, there would still be other options. “They had let us know that even if we weren’t able to get the $22-a-day funding, we would have access to traditional low-income subsidy, Lansdowne support, employment support, all of that stuff,” she said. Appleman said the last allotted CWELCC spaces for the County of Brant were awarded in May. Her business is not part of the program. When she received her licence in July, she was then told she would not qualify for other support programs. “All low-income municipal subsidy is given to centres that have opted into the $22 a day, but there’s no option to opt in to $22 a day.” Competitive program Spots in the CWELCC program are competitive, and there are limited spaces available. “Fee subsidy agreements could only be held with CWELCC-enrolled operators,” Sarah Kozinski, Brantford’s manager of children’s services and early years, said. “So those are part and parcel. You cannot have one without the other, and we don’t have the ability to supersede that provincial regulation.” Appleman said she does not know when she will be able to apply to join the program. The province can take unused CWELCC spots away from regions that are not using them and re-allocate them to those in need. However, that is not done on a consistent schedule and is based on per-needs assessments. The Ontario Ministry of Education told CTV News in a statement that out of the 86,000 spots promised when the federal government first announced CWELCC, 60,000 Ontario children are currently enrolled. “As lower fees have increased demand, we continue to work with local service system managers and operators to bring more spaces online as well as the federal government to ensure program sustainability,” the statement said. The federal government told CTV News, “The Government of Canada is in active discussions with the Government of Ontario on the future of early learning and child care in the Province.” For Appleman, it means a potentially painful wait. “It’s frustrating,” she said. “I did this because I love children. I love this community.” “This is my dream. And I have not come this far to only come this far,” she said. “I’m not giving up without a fight. I will keep taking out business loans. I will keep pushing.”
