Option 1 proposes operating the current childcare system with only 55% of the current budget, thus requiring the elimination of wage grants, family resource centre funding, and reducing fee subsidies for low income families.

Option 2 proposes cutting the remaining $270 million from regulated childcare and family resource centres and putting it into a new children’s benefit.

Option 3 proposes removing the remaining $270 million from regulated childcare and family resource centres to create a cash payment for low-income families.

• The current Ontario budget for regulated childcare is $470 million. Total spending on regulated childcare in Ontario has dropped by over $30 million dollars since the Harris Government came into office.
• Regulated childcare includes licensed daycares, nursery schools, childcare subsidy payments, teacher wage grants, and family resource programs.
• BCCNS currently receives approximately $25,000/yr in teacher wage grants.
• Each of the three options under consideration would eliminate the teacher wage grants requiring either an 19% reduction in teacher salaries or a 15% increase in tuition fees to offset the loss of $25,000 in revenue.
• The provincial government has already eliminated legislated pay equity subsidies for teachers, requiring BCCNS to assume this expense ($1000/year) rather than reducing teacher salaries.
• The proposed reductions would put spending on regulated childcare back fifteen years, to the level it was at in 1986.
• The federal government has provided the Province with $114 million in the first of a five-year new transfer payment plan for Early Childhood Development Services.