MPP Bobbi Ann Brady for Haldimand-Norfolk published a column on September 28, 2026 with a direct headline: the government's childcare program isn't working in her riding. What makes the piece notable is not just the political framing. It is what she documents on the ground — CWELCC centres operating at full capacity, waitlists exceeding 19 months, and parents who cannot access the affordable childcare the program was designed to deliver.
A parent quoted in the column put it plainly: 'What good is affordable childcare if there is no space available?' That sentence is the access failure of CWELCC in one line. Fees are down. Spaces are not there. And in rural Ontario, the gap between those two facts is wider than it is almost anywhere else in the province.
What Brady Is Documenting in Haldimand-Norfolk
The on-the-ground picture Brady describes is specific and sourced from constituents. CWELCC centres in Haldimand-Norfolk are operating at full capacity with waitlists exceeding 19 months. Infant and toddler spaces are particularly scarce. Parents are maintaining multiple waitlists simultaneously, delaying returns to work, reducing hours, or relying on informal and unlicensed care arrangements because no licensed space is available.
Brady draws out the economic consequence: parents facing compromised professional advancement and possible relocation, local workforce shortages when a parent must stay home, and reduced consumer spending across local businesses. These are not abstract policy concerns. They are the downstream effects of a space creation program that has not delivered supply where families actually live.
For operators in Haldimand-Norfolk and similar rural markets, full capacity is financially significant. When your operating capacity matches your licensed capacity and your service days are maximized, your A1 Program Staffing benchmark and A4 Operations Variable benchmark are at their highest. Full centres perform well under the cost-based funding formula. But full capacity with a 19-month waitlist also means there is no room to absorb the demand that exists, and one staff departure can move you below operating targets quickly.
The Space Shortfall Is Most Acute Outside Urban Centres
Ontario committed to 86,000 net new licensed spaces by December 31, 2026. According to June 2026 media reports cited by Brady, approximately 54,000 spaces have been created since 2019 — roughly 32,000 short of the target with the deadline months away. The Ontario auditor general's 2025 report had put the figure at 36,000 as of March 2024, so progress has been made. But the gap remains large, and it is not evenly distributed across the province.
Space creation under CWELCC has concentrated in urban markets where non-profit operators had existing infrastructure and where the 70 per cent non-profit space requirement was more achievable. Rural communities like those in Haldimand-Norfolk — where the non-profit sector is smaller, where there are fewer existing operators to expand, and where per-child funding benchmarks are calculated against a Geographic Adjustment Factor that does not reflect rural operating costs the same way — have seen less of the new supply.
Brady's conclusion is consistent with what the province's Financial Accountability Office has estimated: demand generated by lower fees has outpaced supply by a margin that 86,000 new spaces was never going to close. In rural Ontario, families feel that gap directly.
The Cost-Based Funding Workability Question
Brady notes that parents and CWELCC operators in her riding have raised questions about whether the cost-based funding model introduced in January 2025 is workable. That observation, coming from an elected official rather than an industry association, carries different weight. It signals that the administrative burden of cost-based funding has reached the level where it is showing up in constituent casework.
The workability concern is real and well-documented by operators across the province. The cost-based funding model requires monthly expense tracking against a Program Cost Allocation, a transaction-by-transaction eligibility assessment using the Ministry's three-part test, GIFI code mapping for every expense category, year-end reconciliation with SSM oversight, and detailed documentation for any expense that may be questioned. For operators running large urban centres with dedicated finance staff, this is manageable. For a small rural operator managing everything themselves, the same compliance burden without the same administrative capacity is a material operational problem.
Ron Craig of ChildVentures made the same point in a different context last week: guideline interpretations differ by region, meaning there is no consistency in how operators can apply funding rules. Rural operators in areas with fewer peer networks, less SSM interaction history, and smaller administrative teams are often left to navigate that inconsistency without the resources to challenge it.
What This Means for Rural CWELCC Operators
Brady's column is one more voice in a growing chorus saying the CWELCC program needs to be redesigned — not just extended. The four-year, $12 billion extension announced September 29 gives program continuity to 2031 but does not address the space creation gap, the ECE workforce shortage, or the administrative burden that operators across the province are raising. The advocacy pressure from MPPs like Brady increases the likelihood that those issues are on the table in the next round of federal-provincial negotiations.
In the meantime, the cost-based funding formula is what governs your 2026 allocation and your 2027 plan. The formula has provisions most rural operators underuse: alternate capacity for centres that consistently operate above licence, Growth Top-Up eligibility for operators who have added licensed spaces, and the full range of eligible cost categories that can support a strong year-end reconciliation position. Whether the formula is 'workable' depends significantly on whether you understand it precisely and are applying every provision correctly.
If your centre is operating at full capacity with a long waitlist, your benchmark inputs should reflect that. If your service days are maximized, your monthly expense tracking should confirm you are on track against your Program Cost Allocation. If you are planning to add spaces to meet local demand, the funding mechanics of expansion are worth modelling before you commit to the capital cost.
ChildcareFundingIQ works with operators across Ontario, including in rural communities navigating cost-based funding without large administrative teams. Reach out if you want to understand your current funding position or what expansion could mean for your 2027 allocation.
Book a Consultation →Source: Bobbi Ann Brady MPP, 'Government's childcare program isn't working in HN,' bobbiannbrady.com, September 28, 2026.