Bruce County’s Human Services department was able to provide an update on childcare in the region.
Human Services Director Tina Metcalfe shared that as part of their recent childcare provider survey, EarlyON educators were proud of their partnership with M’Wikwedong Indigenous Friendship Centre, offering Indigenous programming once a week in Port Elgin and Wiarton.
The educators have also been continuing efforts to create a welcoming, inclusive space for children with different developmental needs.
Metcalfe says that the organization’s current goal is to add 645 childcare spaces between 2023 and 2026, for both private and public providers.
She says about adding 215 spaces per year for three years, “It is an ambitious target to increase capacity by the number of spaces that we assume we’ll be allocated by the Ministry of Education.”
Metcalfe also says that “Currently plans are underway to support operators in increasing the number of licensed childcare spaces for existing operators who want to expand”
With ambitions to expand services and childcare spaces, Bruce County currently needs 75 licensed Early Childcare Educators and will be looking to recruit more in the future.
The Human Services Department also shared that of the county’s childcare operators, a majority of them opted into the Canada-Wide Early Learning Child Care (CWELCC) Agreement, with 37 of 39 childcare sites participating in the program that will reduce the cost of childcare to $10 per day.
