Thousands of children in northern Ontario face long waitlists for childcare, while licensed and funded spaces remain vacant due to a shortage of early childhood educators. Service managers and operators report returning funding to the province in some areas because of insufficient staff.
Low Utilization in Key Districts
In the Cochrane District, including Timmins and surrounding communities, more than a third of licensed childcare capacity sits unused. Officials note the region operates at just 63 percent utilization owing to staffing challenges.
“We still are only at 63 per cent utilization and it is because of lack of staffing,” stated Shannon Costello, director of children’s services for the Cochrane District Services Board. As chair of the Northern Ontario Service Delivery Agencies’ children’s services network, Costello highlighted the issue’s prevalence, especially in francophone centres.
“We do not see most of our francophone centres even at 50 per cent capacity due to the fact that we cannot find qualified workers,” she added.
Licensed centres typically accommodate up to 49 children, with limits of 10 infants, 15 toddlers, and 24 preschoolers. Infants require one registered early childhood educator per three children.
Extensive Waitlists Regionwide
Parents encounter significant delays across northern Ontario, as districts lack centralized waitlists, leading families to register at multiple centres. In Sudbury, over 4,300 children await spots, with waits stretching up to 18 months. Sault Ste. Marie reports about 2,200 children on its centralized list.
The District of Nipissing, encompassing North Bay, Mattawa, Temagami, and nearby areas, anticipates returning roughly $6 million in childcare funding this fiscal year. “The reason being is the lack of early childhood educators to actually operate daycares. That’s the bottom line. Not enough people,” said Mark King, North Bay city councillor and chair of the Nipissing District Social Services Administration Board.
More than 1,400 children seek spots there, requiring around 140 qualified staff. At the January Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in Toronto, King advocated a “Learn and Stay” model, mirroring programs in paramedicine and nursing. This would cover college tuition in exchange for commitments to work in northern Ontario.
“We’re asking the province to allow Nipissing to actually move forward with a pilot project that we would try to encourage people to enter that profession,” King explained. He also pitched the idea directly to the Ministry of Education.
Costello endorsed such initiatives for rural and northern areas, where drawing workers from southern Ontario proves difficult. “We know southern areas … have more opportunities for people in the south to stay and learn and there is more population obviously to fill those spots. We do not have that in some areas,” she noted, citing a new centre in Smooth Rock Falls struggling to staff despite demand.
Retention Challenges and Profession’s Value
Early childhood educators support development in licensed centres, nursery schools, and before- and after-school programs, fostering skills like language, motor abilities, and emotional regulation—far beyond basic supervision.
Tracy Saarikoski, executive director of Discovery Early Learning and Care in Sudbury, emphasized retention over mere recruitment. “This is hard work. It’s definitely care work and we need to be recognized for the work that we’re doing,” she said.
Educators often depart for roles offering pensions, benefits, and paid development, unavailable at many centres. Ontario raised the minimum wage for registered early childhood educators to $23.86 per hour in 2023 to address shortages and support the $10-a-day childcare expansion.
“Recently in our program, we have had educators leave because we don’t have a pension,” Saarikoski observed. “A decent wage is fine, but to have those other benefits, it’s quite important.”
Costello and Saarikoski stressed the profession’s undervaluation. “My staff always laugh because when someone says daycare I say ‘no, it’s childcare. We take care of the child not the day,'” Costello remarked. Positive early experiences prevent future issues like drug use, homelessness, and poverty, she added.
