ACE National Is Calling on Every Licensed Operator to Sign. Here Is Why It Matters for Your Funding Position.

The Association of Canadian Early Learning Programs has launched a national Call to Action directed at provincial and federal leaders. The campaign is backed by operators representing over 161,000 licensed child care spaces across Canada, approximately 16 percent of all spaces in the country as of 2022. It is one of the most significant organized operator advocacy efforts in the history of the Canadian child care sector.

For Ontario operators enrolled in CWELCC, the three priorities ACE is demanding from government are not abstract policy positions. They describe the operational reality that is affecting your funding position, your cost structure, and your ability to sustain licensed child care right now.

The Three Demands and What They Mean for Operators

The first demand is funding that reflects the real cost of delivering quality care. ACE is calling for either a funding framework that covers actual eligible costs or a means-tested model that prioritizes affordability for families who need it most. The campaign puts the scale of the gap in direct terms: the federal and provincial governments collectively spend approximately $79 billion per year on K-12 education. The CWELCC program is projected to cost approximately $12 billion per year. That is the funding ratio underlying every benchmark allocation, every Program Cost Allocation, and every year-end reconciliation that Ontario operators are navigating.

When ACE says funding is not reflecting real costs, it is describing the same gap that drives rolling top-ups, that causes centres to return unspent allocation because eligible costs fall below benchmark, and that forces operators into cost reviews because their cost structures exceed what the benchmark was designed to cover. The benchmark rates are a policy choice constrained by a funding envelope that the sector's own national association is now formally calling inadequate.

The second demand is equal access to CWELCC funding for every type of licensed operator, regardless of ownership structure. ACE is specifically calling for a funding framework based on quality and compliance rather than auspice type. In Ontario, all licensed operators enrolled in CWELCC are subject to the same cost-based funding formula, the same eligible cost framework, and the same reconciliation obligations. The demand for equal access reinforces the principle that a licensed operator meeting regulatory requirements and providing quality care should have the same funding opportunity as any other.

For Ontario operators who have experienced inconsistent treatment from their CMSM relative to operators of different auspice types, this advocacy is directly relevant to how the 2027 agreement may be structured.

The third demand is meaningful support for early childhood educators developed in collaboration with operators, not imposed on them. ACE is calling for interprovincial certification to improve educator mobility, recruitment and retention strategies that work across all licensed care models, and genuine operator involvement in workforce policy design.

The workforce point connects directly to funding. As documented by the Maclean's report published earlier this week, more than 162,000 ECE job openings are projected over the next decade. The national median ECE wage is approximately $22.30 per hour while Ontario's RECE wage floor is $25.86 per hour. The gap between what operators can pay and what the labour market requires to retain qualified educators is showing up as vacant rooms, reduced operating capacity, and underspending relative to Program Cost Allocations at year-end reconciliation. ACE is asking government to address that gap through policy rather than leaving operators to absorb it through funding shortfalls.

The Fiscal Context Behind the Campaign

ACE's campaign includes a pointed observation about program reach. Despite significant investment, only approximately 30 percent of Canadian children currently have access to a funded child care space, with the majority of funded spaces being accessed by higher-income families. The campaign asks directly whether universal funding is achievable and equitable given current fiscal constraints, or whether a means-tested model targeting families with the greatest financial need would better serve the stated goals of the program.

This framing mirrors the C.D. Howe Institute's August 2026 analysis which found that CWELCC generated less than one percent of its cost in tax revenue over its first three years, primarily because the labour supply gains the program was designed to produce have not materialized at the scale projected. Two independent research and advocacy voices, one an economic policy institute and one the national operator association, are arriving at the same structural critique from different directions.

For the 2027 agreement negotiations, the convergence of these perspectives on the same conclusions represents meaningful pressure on the federal and provincial governments to restructure rather than simply renew.

What This Means for Your Centre Today

The ACE Call to Action is advocacy for system change. It does not change your 2026 funding framework. Every benchmark rate, eligible cost rule, and reconciliation obligation under the April 2026 guideline remains in effect regardless of how the campaign progresses.

What the campaign does is provide organized sector-level documentation that the pressures your centre is managing are systemic. If your program staffing costs are elevated because of the ECE labour market, if your operating capacity is constrained because you cannot hire to your licensed capacity, or if your benchmark allocation is not covering your actual eligible costs, ACE's national data and advocacy record supports the context for those circumstances in any cost review or reconciliation conversation with your CMSM.

The administrative burden point in the campaign is also worth noting. ACE is explicitly calling for a regulatory approach that reduces excessive administrative strain and allows operators to focus on delivering quality care rather than navigating complex red tape. The CWELCC cost-based funding formula, with its benchmark components, operating space-days, licensed space-days, eligible child ratios, standardized financial reports, and year-end reconciliations, is exactly the administrative framework ACE is describing. The campaign is asking government to simplify it. Until it does, operators need tools to manage it.

ChildcareFundingIQ exists because the formula exists in its current form. The platform reduces the administrative burden of managing your CWELCC allocation by walking through every calculation step by step, tracking eligible costs by GIFI and FIN codes throughout the year, and projecting your year-end reconciliation position before December closes the window to act.

If you want to support the ACE campaign, you can sign the Call to Action at acenational.ca. If you want to protect your funding position under the current formula while the sector advocates for a better one, sign up free at childcarefundingiq.ca.

Both matter. One is a long-term fight. The other is what keeps your centre financially stable while that fight is underway.

Source: Association of Canadian Early Learning Programs. "Call to Action: Build a Childcare System That's Sustainable, Accessible, High-Quality, and Affordable." acenational.ca, 2026. Statistics Canada cited within ACE campaign materials.