Day Care for $15.00 per day, Nationally - NDP Proposal

[mickyc]

I always laugh when the government states they are going to create all these daycare spaces. UMMMMM....you have to have people to work in those centre's in order to have the ability to open spaces. Why would someone want to spend the money to go to school only to make a mediocre wage when they can stay private and make more money in the end.

I doubt it will ever happen.

[cfred]

I was listening to Heidi Higgins (CICPO) on the radio this morning (Ed Hand show I believe). I may not have the numbers exactly right, but in the ballpark - apparently after the numbers are crunched they're opening something in the area of 370, 000 daycare spots....ACROSS CANADA! We have 350, 000 in Ontario alone! They still won't have enough spaces for everyone. According to the article I've linked below, it's often the 'well to do' who get to the front of the line for those cheaper services. A good example would be a professor of ECE from Quebec I debated this very issue with yesterday. She claimed that the Quebec system is awesome and her family benefited greatly from it..the system works just fine in her eyes. I suggested that for her, an ECE prof with an automatic 'in' into the system, it was probably great....not so much for my friends who weren't lucky enough to partake. This still isn't going to fix our daycare crisis, but man, can those who are touting the national daycare plan idea ever crazy about it....CRAZY! This is their magic bullet apparently.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/...ds-in-daycare/

[33 Daiseys]

THE DAY THIS HAPPENS I'M OUT...... I will be debt free in 4 months, and at that point fu@@ that noise. There is no way that only being able to have three children at 225.00 a week will i work 10 hour days. Nope not me. I was talking to some local dcp's, and if this were to happen the city of ottawa would be out 17 providers.

[cfred]

That's kind of my point. I feel for families, I really do. The cost of daycare is horrendous! BUT...I'm not living high off the hog here. Though my rates are the highest in my area, as with all providers, the expenses come out of that. And those expenses are substantial. What's left leaves me able to pay my necessities with a bit left over. I don't know a single provider who lives high off the hog. ECEs are never, ever mentioned in these articles beyond the obligatory, token comment about making it better for them. I call BS.....people are only concerned about the cost to families. While I'm all for affordable daycare, I think everyone also needs to consider who's providing that care, the difficulty of the job, the long (loooooong) hours and immense responsibility on our shoulders. Why should we not expect to make a decent income from it....one that allows us a reasonably comfortable life? I'm really sick of factoring in at the bottom of the heap when it comes to the daycare debate. The fact is that it does cost money to take care of children...lots of it! It has to come from somewhere. ECEs have been known, throughout the existence of daycare, to subsidize this for cost for families by being so poorly compensated in order to keep the costs down. This was actually info I gleaned in one of my ECE classes, back in the day. If we were actually paid what we SHOULD be paid, no one would be having kids.

[AmandaKDT]

Don't hold me to this, but it likely that the $15 a day would only be the PARENT fees. With being licensed I charge the parents only $18.20 per day but I get government grant money on top of that for every one of my daycare spots. There is no way I could do this otherwise, it is not enough income with just the parent fees.

Not that I think this election promise is going to happen, but just thought I would share that info.

[Rachael]

Don't hold me to this, but it likely that the $15 a day would only be the PARENT fees. With being licensed I charge the parents only $18.20 per day but I get government grant money on top of that for every one of my daycare spots. There is no way I could do this otherwise, it is not enough income with just the parent fees.

Not that I think this election promise is going to happen, but just thought I would share that info.

Yes - that's how I imagined it would be. Parents paying $15 and the government settling the rest. There's no way day carers or centres can live off just $15 a day - that $1.50 per hour so $9 if full before expenses. Below minimum wage.

I think my concern is that the government settling the difference might mean we all have to be registered and here, that makes no sense if you have any business ability yourself. The numbers are exactly the same registered or not but there are restrictions on ages for those registered. This means instead of just trying to find a client who is a good match, I'd also have to find one whose child happens to be the right age for the vacancy.

Wow - so even subsidiary work differently across the county? That's really interesting.

In NS, a registered provider can still only have 6 kids including her own however they can take subsidized clients. But the providers are NOT paid for each of the places carte blanche.

What happens is the parents are assessed and awarded subsidary based on their income, work/school hours, etc. The MAX amount is $22 a day for all day care and $17 for BAS care but few are entitled to that much support.

So those clients who do get assistance, pay the outstanding amount of Day care fees - their personal subsided amounts. Therefore every single client getting assistance is paying a different amount. There is no government top up unless the individual qualifies for it so it's common to have a mixture of clients paying full cost and clients paying part with the government settling up the difference the following month only for those entitled to help.

EDIT

not to mention that you only get the top off every 3 months with an agency.

Another difference.

Here the provider does the paperwork at month end and submits to the agency. The agency files with the government who about a week later, send the fees. Then the agency divides the one government payment up between the carers based on entitlement. Can take a couple of weeks or so.

So if a provider her was charging say $35 a day and the family had been assessed as getting $20 in assistance, the family would pay their $15 as per the providers pay schedule. But the rest would have to wait until the end of the month + approx 2 weeks for the government $20.

[superfun]

Wow - so even subsidiary work differently across the county? That's really interesting.

In NS, a registered provider can still only have 6 kids including her own however they can take subsidized clients. But the providers are NOT paid for each of the places carte blanche.

What happens is the parents are assessed and awarded subsidary based on their income, work/school hours, etc. The MAX amount is $22 a day for all day care and $17 for BAS care but few are entitled to that much support.

So those clients who do get assistance, pay the outstanding amount of Day care fees - their personal subsided amounts. Therefore every single client getting assistance is paying a different amount. There is no government top up unless the individual qualifies for it so it's common to have a mixture of clients paying full cost and clients paying part with the government settling up the difference the following month only for those entitled to help.

I find this so interesting to learn about the differences across Canada. Like AmandaKDT mentioned, if you choose to get licensed, and choose to be funded, the parents pay 18.20/day to the provider and we get additional funding every 3 months for every spot. If a parent qualifies for subsidy, they get approved for a certain amount, for example I'll say they get approved for the maximum amount. They are still responsible for $2/day, and at the end of each 4 week period, I receive the remainder (16.20/day) from the province.