The federal and provincial governments recently signed the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement aimed at making child care more affordable for families.

What does this mean for my family?

If you have a child under 6 years in licensed child care and the centre chooses to participate in the agreement, you may receive a 25% child care fee reduction as of April 1, 2022. An additional 25% fee reduction is also set to occur by the end of 2022.

All child care providers that wish to participate in the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care program will need to apply to Oxford County by November 1, 2022. If your licensed child care provider decides to participate and is approved, they will let you know when you can receive your refund. If your provider decides not to participate, they must let you know this.

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When will child care fees be reduced, and retroactive payments be issued?

Once we receive more information from the provincial government, Oxford County will be creating an application process to make it easy for your child care provider to apply to be part of the CWELCC agreement. While this process may take a few months, you will still receive a refund retroactive to April 1, 2022. As this is a new funding program for the child care sector, we will require time to develop the new processes required to support this plan. We ask for your patience as we acquire this information and commit to providing you with updates as we learn more.

How is Oxford County preparing for the rollout of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement?

Oxford County is committed to building and supporting a child care and early learning system that meets the needs of all families and children. We will be working closely with our provincial and federal governments to carry out this plan. We commit to keeping you up-to-date as more information and details of the plan become available. To learn more about the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Program visit https://www.ontario.ca/page/canada-ontario-early-years-and-child-care-agreement.

We encourage parents/caregivers to reach out to their child care providers for any questions they have relative to the child care provider's intention to apply to participate in the agreement.

We are excited to be working with our community to support all families with accessing high-quality affordable child care that supports healthy child development and makes Oxford County the best place to raise a child.

For more information about the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement in Oxford County, please email humanservices@oxfordcounty.ca.