Child Care Licensees

Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement

For any questions or if you need additional information
Email [email protected]

CWELCC Updates

2024 Goals

Complete a second community engagement process with community-based service providers that work with diverse families to better understand child care needs and barriers to access, which will inform child care expansion plans.
Prioritize wards for directed growth for new child care spaces in 2024 are wards 6,11, 5 and 2.
Create 265 new community-based child care spaces.
Maintain Ontario’s Ministry of Education auspice ratio (the number of not-for-profit to for-profit spaces) at 80-20.
Launch an Early Childhood Educator marketing campaign highlighting the stories of educators working in the Early Years System in Hamilton.
Implement Ontario’s Ministry of Education Child Care Workforce Strategy and implement local strategies that grow, attract, retain and sustain a high-quality workforce.
Distribute cost escalation and emerging issues funding to child care program licensees participating in CWELCC.

2023 Accomplishments

Reduced child care fees by 52.75%, saving Hamilton families an estimated $9,100 on child care per child in 2023.
Expanded funding agreements with six licensed child care licensees to increase access to child care across Hamilton.
Developed an Access and Inclusion Framework to direct growth in Hamilton’s licensed child care system to best serve the needs of the community.
Engaged 331 families through 10 community-based service providers to gain a better understanding of child care needs and barriers to access, to inform child care expansion plans.
Met the Ontario Ministry of Education’s community-based child care space target of creating 381 new child care spaces across the community.
Implemented an Early Childhood Educator Workforce Grant pilot to support more than 450 Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) with the cost of child care, resulting in improving retention and reducing barriers to employment. ECEs reported improved family well-being and reduced household debt as a result.
Implemented an affordability grant pilot to reduce the cost of before and after school child care to $15/day for children aged 6-12 years transitioning out of the CWELCC age window.
Launched the new fee subsidy client portal which has streamlined communication, enhanced document security, improved efficiency and enabled better case management.
Launched an Early Childhood Educator marketing campaign focusing on the important role they play in the community and in supporting child development. This resulted in more than 8,000 views and comments on the City’s social media channels.
Partnered with Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development and 43 other Service System Managers across the province to implement the Knowing our Numbers Survey to learn more about the early years workforce. These results will help inform future workforce strategies to grow, attract, retain and sustain a high-quality workforce in Hamilton.
Implemented two successful professional development days for more than 2000 early years professionals.
Increased the number of special needs children who received child care service support.

Child Care Staff and child at Licensed Child Care

Applications are now closed

Child Care Directed Growth Application

Applications for community-based spaces allocated to Hamilton as a part of the CWELCC Directed Growth. This application & evaluation process:

enables growth for new child care licensees
expands current child care programs with existing licensees
includes start-up grants

Directed Growth Applications are now closed. The next application intake TBD.

The CWELCC plan is designed to provide high-quality, affordable, accessible and inclusive licensed child care programs to support Ontario’s children, families, employers, early years professionals and the child care sector. This plan aligns with the priorities for the Early Years System in Hamilton - affordability, accessibility, inclusion and quality.

All growth in CWELCC, both centre based and licensed home child care, will be approved through the City's directed growth application process. Licensees looking to open a new child care site can open outside of the CWELCC system and do not need to complete a Directed Growth Application.

The Ministry of Education is responsible for licensing and compliance. All new licence requests and licence revisions are completed on the Child Care Licensing System. For more resources review Start a child care program.

Participating licensees in the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care system in Hamilton are listed here: Financial Support for Child Care.

CWELCC Guidelines

Access & Inclusion Framework

Child Care Directed Growth Application

Workforce Compensation Funding Guidelines

Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) Guidelines

Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care 2023 Capped Rates

Child Care Centre Full-Day Programs	Fee
Licensed infant group	$73.96
Licensed toddler group	$58.36
Licensed preschool group	$53.25
Licensed kindergarten group	$48.50
Licensed school age group	$48.50
Licensed family age group	$58.36

Home Child Care Full-day Programs	Fee
Younger than 2 years	$52.77
2 to 3 years	$45.62
4 to 6 years	$47.69

Child Care Centre Before & After School Programs	Fee
Kindergarten	$25.35
School Age	$21.93

Home Child Care Before & After School Programs	Fee
Kindergarten	$34.83
School Age	$35.94

If a licensee was licensed on or before March 27, 2022, the cap on the base fee and on non base fees for child care for eligible children is the amount charged to parents on March 27, 2022. If a licensee becomes licensed after March 27, 2022, the cap on the base fee is based on a regional maximum as set out in O. Reg 137/15 77.1, which provides a table of capped fees by program and CMSM/DSSAB. These regional maximum fees would also apply to any new age groups that a licensee begins operating after March 27, 2022 (e.g., they apply to revise their license to add an infant room), or where a licensee begins operating an age group after March 27, 2022 that the licensee had not operated for at least two years (e.g., a licensee wishes to use an alternate capacity that has not been used recently or re-open a room that was closed during the pandemic). See O. Reg. 137/15 for further details.

Child Care Space Allocation in Hamilton

Ontario’s Ministry of Education has allocated these additional child care spaces from 2022 to 2026.

Year	School Based Spaces	Community Based Spaces	Total
2022	49	146	195
2023	107	381	488
2024	49	265	314
2025	49	339	388
2026	-	302	302
Total Spaces	254	1433	1687

Early analysis has demonstrated the need to begin expansion in four wards, acknowledging that all wards have diversity and require a deeper review and a phased approach to ensure that we are meeting the needs of each neighbourhood.

In 2023, Children’s and Community Services Division will focus expansion in:

Ward 6: East Mountain
Ward 7: Central Mountain
Ward 3: Hamilton Centre
Ward 4: East Lower Hamilton

As part of Phase 2 of CWELCC Implementation: Access and Inclusion Framework, the City of Hamilton will continue to engage with the Early Year's Community and enhance data collection to ensure child care expansion meets the needs of Hamilton families and licensed child care operators.

These guiding principles and foundational documents are embedded into all Children’s and Community Services:

Hamilton Early Years Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Action Plan (In Development)
Hamilton Parent’s Charter of Rights
How Does Learning Happen: Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years
Hamilton’s Early Years Quality Program

Access and Inclusion Framework Documents

City of Hamilton's CWELCC Access & Inclusion Framework(PDF, 485.78 KB)

Cadre d’accès et d’inclusion sur le SPAGJE de Ville de Hamilton(PDF, 2.87 MB)

Ontario's CWELCC Access & Inclusion Framework(PDF, 475.79 KB)

Cadre d’accès et d’inclusion sur le SPAGJE de l’Ontario(PDF, 493.65 KB)

Child Care Directed Growth Application are now Closed. The next application intake TBD.

As a part of the community-based spaces allocated to the City of Hamilton by Ontario’s Ministry of Education applications for directed growth child care spaces are now available. 2024 Directed Growth Applications are being accepted city-wide, however consideration will first be provided to those applicants looking to create new, or expand current child care spaces located in priority wards 6,5,11 and 2.

Application and Evaluation Considerations are:

Child Care location is in the identified Priority Wards
Location is secured via ownership, intent to lease, or lease agreement.
Application alignment with City of Hamilton’s Access and Inclusion Framework.
Maintain Ministry auspice ratios of “Not for Profit” and “For Profit’ at 80/20 (the number of not-for-profit to for-profit spaces).
Financial Viability

Expressing interest or applying for CWELCC through the Directed Growth Application, does not guarantee automatic participation and enrollment into the plan. Follow the CWELCC Directed Growth Application Package Checklist and refer to the expanded instructions on how to complete the application.

CWELCC Directed Growth Application Process Map(PDF, 20.6 KB)

Carte du Processus - Croissance Dirigée(PDF, 156.74 KB)

The purpose of the Workforce Compensation funding is to provide:

compensation for eligible Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs) working in licensed childcare programs that opt-in to the CWELCC system
compensation funding eligible licensees to offset wage increases for non-RECE staff associated with the increased minimum wage (effective October 1st, 2022)

There are three funding components of the CWELCC Workforce Compensation:

Annual Increase - funding is provided for eligible RECE staff to receive an annual increase. For 2024 RECE Program Staff (including RECE supply/casual staff) will be eligible for up to $2/hour, to a cap of $26/hour. RECE Supervisors and RECE Home Child Care Visitors are eligible for up to $2/hour, to a cap of $29/hour.
Wage Floor - funding is provided for eligible RECE staff to receive a wage top-up to bring the hourly wage up to the annual RECE wage floor. For 2024, starting wages for RECEs will be raised to a minimum of $23.86/hour, and RECE Supervisors and RECE Home Child Care Visitors raised to a minimum of $24.86/hour
Minimum Wage Offset - funding is provided to eligible licensees to offset wage increases for non-RECE staff associated with the increased minimum wage requirements.

CWELCC Workforce Compensation funding also includes up to 17.5% in benefit funding to support licensees in meeting their statutory benefit requirements (for example, 2 weeks’ vacation, 9 statutory holidays, Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance contributions, Employer Health Tax (if applicable)).

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for Workforce Compensation funding, licensees must be enrolled in the CWELCC system, and their staff must be receiving the Provincial Wage Enhancement grant. Once enrolled, licensees are eligible to receive this funding from the date of enrollment up to and including December 31, 2024.

Workforce Compensation Funding FAQs

The Annual Increase and Wage Floor compensation applies only to employees who qualify. To qualify, the employee must:

Be a Registered Early Childhood Educator (RECE) in good standing with the College of Early Childhood (CECE), as outlined in the Early Childhood Educators Act, 2007,
Be employed (receive a T4) by a child care agency participating in CWELCC in a position categorized as either an RECE program staff, RECE supervisor or RECE Home Visitor,
Receive the Provincial Wage Enhancement Grant (WEG), and
Have an hourly base wage below the wage cap of $26/hour for RECE program staff (including RECE supply/casual staff), and $29/hour for RECE Supervisors and RECE Home Child Care Visitors, to receive the Annual Increase. To receive Wage Floor funding, RECE Program Staff (including RECE supply/casual staff) must have an hourly base wage rate below $23.86/hour (after Annual Increase is applied), and below $24.86/hour for RECE Supervisors and RECE Home Child Care Visitors (after Annual Increase is applied).

Non-program staff who are an RECE in good standing with the CECE and spend at least 25% of their time meeting the Child Care and Early Years Act ratio requirements, qualify for the hours worked in ratio. Staff hired temporarily through a third party (such as an employment agency) do not qualify. Staff hired temporarily through a third party (such as an employment agency) do not qualify.

No. To be eligible for the CWELCC Annual Increase and Wage Floor compensation the employee must have an RECE designation, work in an eligible position and meet the wage eligibility requirements.

Only RECE supervisors qualify for the $24.86/hour wage floor. The RECE supervisor is an RECE who is in a supervisor position as indicated on the license (O. Reg. 137/15 s. 53).

Assistant supervisors who have a RECE designation and spend at least 25% of their time supporting CCEYA ratio requirements may qualify for the RECE annual wage increase and/or the RECE program staff wage floor (23.86/hour) for hours worked in program only.

Yes. Both, the annual wage increase and the wage floor may apply to RECE program staff, RECE supervisors and RECE home visitors regardless of employment status (temporary, part-time and full-time) as long as they are employed by the child care provider (in receipt of a T4).

Note: Staff hired temporarily through a third party (such as an employment agency) are not eligible for CWELCC Workforce Compensation funding.

Yes. Workforce Compensation funding is tied to the position, though the individual RECE’s base wage will determine how much CWELCC funding can be provided.

This means that all eligible RECE program staff can receive up to $2 per hour in CWELCC Annual Increase compensation funding for 2024. This includes employees who are continuing in their existing positions, newly filling an existing position (e.g., replacing a previous staff member), or filling a newly created position in 2024.

No. To qualify for Workforce Compensation funding, employees must be an RECE in good standing with the College of Early Childhood Educators (CECE), as outlined in the Early Childhood Educators Act, 2007. Employees currently enrolled in an ECE diploma or degree may only qualify for the annual wage increase and/or wage floor once they are a registered member with the CECE.

No, you cannot use CWELCC Workforce Compensation funding to offset and/or reduce other planned compensation increases. The eligibility for workforce compensation is determined on the base pay rate earned on January 1^st of the given year. Any in--year employer raises do not impact eligibility for this funding for the current year.

Review Child Care

Licensee Resources

Visit Child Care Licensee Resources for all forms, guides, and tools for Licensees operating in the City of Hamilton.

CWELCC Agreement - Funding Agreement - SAMPLE (PDF, 303.8 KB)CWELCC Agreement - Schedule E - SAMPLE (PDF, 267.84 KB)CWELCC Start-up Grant Agreement Sample (PDF, 4.06 MB)

cwelcc

Frequently Asked Questions

As a CWELCC participating licensee you will receive funding to offset reduced daily parent fees, workforce compensation, cost escalation, and emerging issues. Additional funding and supports will be provided through fee subsidy, the City of Hamilton's early years quality program, special needs resourcing staff supports and professional learning support for educators through Affiliated Services for Children and Youth (ASCY).

The CWELCC plan offers a reduction in parent daily fees and other mandatory fees(if applicable), until your child reaches the age of four.

The Ministry of Education will announce the next fee reduction date. This date, including an implementation plan, will be led by the City of Hamilton. The goal is to reduce the fees to an average of $12/day by March 2026.

Access to child care is extremely important for families in Hamilton. Prospective licensees are welcome to apply for a licence and operate outside of the CWELCC system. This means that when a Licensee submits their Licence Request through the Child Care Licensing System, they select “No” to participating, and they do not have to complete a Directed Growth Application.

Yes. All growth in CWELCC occurs through the Directed Growth Application. Your licence request will not be approved unless the Directed Growth Application is completed, submitted, and you were approved for the community-based child care spaces. CWELCC participation is not guaranteed.

Applicants that submit a Directed Growth Application will have an opportunity to apply for the Start up grant. The start up grant is a part of the Directed Growth Application, meaning that only successful applicants will be considered. Licensees are not eligible if they are school-based, choose to operate outside of CWELCC, or are already operational and want to enroll an existing program into CWELCC.

No. The City of Hamilton does not enter into funding agreements for specific funding envelops such as; fee subsidy, general operating, and system priority. We are integrating our funding model to support CWELCC implementation.

Date modified

June 13, 2024