New rules may leave parents scrambling for daycare

A home daycare provider in Sudbury says parents can expect higher costs and fewer spaces at local home daycare centres, thanks to new provincial legislation. 

 Bill 10 — the Childcare Modernization Act — has passed its third reading at Queen's Park. 

• Unlicensed daycare rules 'barely' enforced, report warns
• Sudbury city council wants out of daycare business

Under the old rules, daycare providers were allowed to care for five children under the age of 10, not including their own. 

Now, providers will be allowed to care for five kids under 13 — but their own children will be rolled into that total until they turn six.  

Children [currently in care] will be displaced completely.- Sheena Nagy, independent daycare provider in Sudbury

There are other changes and caveats in the new legislation as well — all of which, according to Sheena Nagy, will leave local families scrambling to find care.

Nagy is an independent childcare provider in Sudbury and a member of the Sudbury chapter of the Coalition of Independent Childcare Operators of Ontario. 

"Children [currently in care] will be displaced completely," she said.

"Just today, we saw several posts on Facebook ... where parents are looking for daycare already because they've been turned away because the provider is anticipating Bill 10."

Nagy also said the new rules would be particularly hard on parents of children under the age of two. 

"The mothers and parents that are looking for care are usually people ... coming off maternity leave with a 12-month-old. We can only take two children under the age of two if this bill passes," she said. 

As for her own business, Nagy said she will now have to ask two families to find other care arrangements for their children, which she said is not only disruptive to the families, but hurts her bottom line.  

"And if I would like to add to my [own] family in the near future with a new baby, then I would have to ask a third person [to leave]."

Nagy said the clients she would be allowed to retain could expect an increase in fees of 30 to 40 per cent to offset lost revenue.

Daycare deaths

The act is, in part, influenced by the deaths of three children in separate, unregistered daycares in the Toronto area last year.

The Education Ministry later found complaints about illegal daycares were going unanswered.

But Nagy said if the province wanted to ramp-up safety through inspections, they should be investing more. 

"They've committed already just to hiring six extra inspectors for the entire province," she said. "So across the province right now there are 54 inspectors, which aren't doing enough of a job as it is."