Childcare is nominally provincial responsibility so some provinces are better off than others. Quebec, for example, offers $7/day daycare and people there are mightily pleased with it. Ontario, where I am, theoretically funds some daycares, but it seems to me to be on a case by case basis. In Ottawa, home care will set you back $34 a day and daycare center $62. This effectively means that only mid to high income families can afford centers. Only 12% of preschoolers in Ottawa are in some sort of registered accommodations and this includes home cares that are supervised by agencies. Since just slightly above 50% of Canadian children are cared for by someone other than their parents, I assume that most kids are in some sort of private home care arraignments.

There are articles in the papers all the time about ridiculous waiting lists, but my experience is that it is not so bad. Everyone I know who was looking for daycare found some. Sometimes you have to call centers directly and visit a few times to magically appear on the top of the list. I suspect that lists are inflated – Trevor is currently in home daycare but I have no intention of removing him from the waiting list until he is of school age. In fact, we had our names on the list for about four years now even though he is only 11 months and a bit.

I’ve signed Trev up for the Montessori center, but they only take babies at 18 months (though they said they will take him at 16). This is a pain in the neck since I had to find home daycare for him for the 4 months difference. Finding a good daycare is another problem all together. I found that there are a lot of people offering to take kids, but they are women staying at home with their own children with very little or no interest in other kids except for the fact that they’re getting money for something they would be doing anyway. I’ve actually had daycare set up with someone in my neighborhood through an agency. We were supposed to drop Trev off yesterday morning and just as we were getting into the car, she called to tell me that she won’t take him. I feel like a total idiot for choosing to go with her despite my husband preferring someone else. Fortunately, my husband’s choice provider was able to fit Trev in and we took him there today and he had a great time. This private home daycare provider has 12 years experience and has been very warmly recommended. My problem with her is that she is far away (about 15 minutes in one direction) and that the kids play in an half unfinished basement.

I find it too bad that there is no incentive for daycare providers to go with agencies. I wish there was more competition. This way it is really a matter of luck to have someone to recommend a good provider.

The federal government had implemented a 5 billion dollar daycare program, but the party in power lost the election and the new government canceled it before it got started and replaced it with some ridiculous scheme where as they send every single family in the country $100 a month per child. This is not enough money to make a difference to a family that can’t afford food or snowsuits and it is an utter waste it give it to someone like me, even though I will end up giving half of it back in taxes. One of the opposition members was criticised for calling this hand out “beer and popcorn” money, but frankly, $50 pretty much only covers my monthly wine and cheese bill.