The City of Peterborough published its Child Care Waitlist Snapshot for March 2026. The data is sourced from the OneHSN Centralized Waitlist system used by child care agencies across Peterborough City and County. For licensed operators enrolled in CWELCC in this service area, the numbers tell a story about demand, capacity, and where the pressure points are heading into the second half of 2026.
The headline number is 3,739 individual children currently on the waitlist. That figure counts each child only once, regardless of how many programs the family applied to. Total applications are higher.
Against 4,513 centre-based licensed spaces across 20 agencies operating 63 centres, a waitlist of 3,739 children represents an extraordinary level of unmet demand in a relatively contained service area. Two licensed home child care agencies are also operating in the system.
One in Three Applications Are Already Overdue
The single most striking data point in the snapshot is this: one in three applications have preferred start dates in the past. These are not families planning ahead. These are children who needed care in 2025 or earlier and still do not have a space. Twenty-nine per cent of all applications have start dates from 2025 or earlier, representing 1,153 applications from families who have been waiting beyond their target date.
For operators, this figure is relevant in a specific way. It confirms that the demand driving your waitlist is not speculative. It is accumulated and overdue. Families are not shopping for options. They are waiting for capacity that does not yet exist.
The Age Group Distribution Has Direct Funding Implications
The breakdown of applications by age group is not evenly distributed, and that matters for how operators should think about their Program Cost Allocation under the CWELCC cost-based funding formula.
Infant applications represent 32% of all applications, the largest single age group at 1,703 applications. Toddler applications account for 20% and preschool for 17%. JK and SK applications represent 22% of the total.
This distribution matters for operators because infant spaces carry the highest program staffing benchmark in the cost-based funding formula. The staff to child ratio for infants under O. Reg. 137/15 is 3 to 10, compared to 1 to 5 for toddlers and 1 to 8 for preschoolers. Infant operating space-days generate the largest program staffing component in your benchmark allocation. Operators with significant infant capacity need to ensure their Program Cost Allocation is accurately calculated for that age group. An error in the infant benchmark calculation has a larger dollar impact than the same error in a preschool calculation.
58% of children on the waitlist are under 2.5 years of age or not yet born, with families applying in anticipation of a child's arrival. This confirms that the infant and toddler pressure in Peterborough is structural and multi-year. Demand is being generated before children are born and persisting well past their intended start date.
Rural Demand Is a Meaningful Share of the Total
Thirty-five per cent of children on the waitlist are from rural communities in Peterborough County. This is a significant proportion and reflects a challenge common to many Ontario service areas where licensed capacity is concentrated in urban centres while families in rural communities face longer travel times, fewer options, and in many cases no local licensed care at all.
For operators in rural Peterborough County, the geographic adjustment factor applied to your benchmark allocation reflects the cost differences associated with your location. Understanding your GAF and how it interacts with your benchmark components is part of ensuring your Program Cost Allocation reflects your actual cost structure. Operators in geographically remote areas with demonstrably higher costs also have specific protections in the cost review process, where geographic remoteness is explicitly recognized as a reason why cost reductions may not be achievable.
27% of Children Require Fee Subsidy Support
Just over one quarter of children on the Peterborough waitlist require subsidized fees to access licensed care. For operators, this means a material portion of the demand your centre is serving, or could serve, is coming from families who rely on fee subsidy to make licensed care financially accessible.
Fee subsidy revenue is included in the base fee revenue your centre reports and is factored into the Expected Base Fee Revenue Offset calculation in your Cost-Based Funding Allocation. Operators serving a high proportion of subsidized families should ensure their base fee revenue tracking accurately captures both direct parent fees and fee subsidy receipts, and that the Expected Base Fee Revenue Offset in their allocation reflects their actual program mix.
What This Data Means If You Are Considering Expansion
Peterborough's waitlist data provides some of the clearest evidence available in any Ontario service area that demand materially exceeds licensed capacity. For operators considering adding licensed spaces, this context is directly relevant to your growth top-up calculation under the April 2026 CWELCC Cost-Based Funding Guideline.
The growth top-up is available to existing centres adding new licensed spaces in the calendar year and to new centres in their first year of CWELCC enrollment. It is calculated by applying the CMSM-specific growth multiplier to the benchmark allocation for the new spaces only, using modified rules for the supervisor and accommodations components in the first year. Understanding exactly what your growth top-up would be before committing to expansion is a calculation ChildcareFundingIQ can run for you before you make that decision.
The Peterborough data also demonstrates demand across age groups, not just in one program type. Operators expanding into infant or toddler capacity in particular should model their full Program Cost Allocation carefully, as the staffing cost structure for these age groups is materially different from preschool or school-age programs.
What Peterborough Operators Should Be Doing Now
The waitlist data confirms that you are operating in a high-demand environment. That does not automatically translate into financial stability if your Program Cost Allocation is not accurately calculated, your eligible cost claim is not fully documented, or your WEG and WCF entitlements are not being claimed correctly.
ChildcareFundingIQ gives Peterborough operators step-by-step visibility into their 2026 CWELCC allocation using current benchmark rates, models the financial impact of capacity changes, and tracks eligible expenses by GIFI and FIN codes throughout the year so you are not reconstructing your position at year-end.
If you need direct support navigating your funding position, a cost review, or the implications of expansion in Peterborough's current environment, our consulting services provide operator-side support from advisors who understand the formula and work exclusively for you.
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Learn More →Source: City of Peterborough, "Child Care Waitlist Snapshot: Peterborough," Children's Services, March 2026. Data sourced from the OneHSN Centralized Waitlist system.