Personally I think the rules should be the 'same' regardless if you choose to go with a licensing agency because you want your clients to have access to subsidy or you want the support or if you choose to self regulate yourself because you do not feel you 'need' the support of an agency or do not want to deal with 'subsidy'.

IMO 'best practice' regulations for the minimum standard of health and safety of children should be the same regardless of what model of care is being offered .... private self regulated providers and clients who choose to use them should still be making sure they have done due diligence to ensure the program has fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide detectors, locked medicine cabinets, safe environments and all the other things that 'regulated' programs are required to do to protect children in their care ... the rules should be the SAME regardless because these are common sense safety concerns.

I also feel that the governments inconsistent expectations of allowing an unregulated provider to have 5 children plus her own is what allows 'illegal' programs to thrive in our Province .... after all from a clients perspective if this women is 'legal' because she is allowed to have 5 plus her 4 own wee ones than what is the difference with someone like me having 9 children none of whom are my own .... in fact I would argue that statistically speaking based on networking with peers who have their own children in their daycare that the 'non daycare children' tend to be the better behaved out of the group on average because children always tend to give their OWN parents the hardest time with behaviors and well you cannot 'terminate' your own children ... so I would likely be able to manage 9 children better BECAUSE none of them are mine and A) I am able to sleep through the night as a result so am better rested and have access to more 'down time' because I am not caring for children 24/7 and most importantly I have control of 'terminating' any that make it hard for me to manage

However based on the 'rules' it is illegal for me to have more than 5 children and the 'logic' behind it is well beyond me?

I honestly do not get why they ever allowed it to be the 5 children plus your own in the one setting but in others you have to count your own children ~ it has never made sense to me and opens up all sorts of 'confusion' in the industry.

So my short answer is YES I am honestly hoping that when they finally DO announce the new changes to the Day Nursery Act as part of the 'Modernizing Ontario Childcare' that this is one of the areas that is addressed .... I do not want them to make it that we are all required to be with an agency but I do think we should all be working from the same basic 'rule book' when it comes to health and safety, ratios and so forth specially since they are just MINIMUM STANDARDS anyway that most people choose to exceed anyway