The cost for your child to attend North Hastings Children’s Services could be going up by $5 a day this year.
That’s according to Executive Director Jessica Anderson, after an information session on Wednesday night. Anderson says Ontario’s minimum wage increase to $14-an-hour at the beginning of 2018 will mean wages for the centre’s frontline workers and supervisors will also have to go up.
The median pay for an Early Child Educator at NHCS will be about $22 this year, up from around $19 in 2017. Anderson says these rates are lower than what ECEs would get paid if they worked with a school board, but still in line with other child care centres in Ontario. She says the wage increase will also mean a more-than-$67,000 spike to NHCS’ payroll this year, which will put it above $555,000.
If nothing is done to address issues related to the wage increase, Anderson says rates for toddlers, which is children between 18 and 30 months old, could go up from $38 to $43 in 2018. Toddlers make up the largest number of children that attend the centre.
Moose FM spoke to some parents at the meeting about how they feel about the potential increase.
However, Anderson also says the child care centre is looking at other options to keep costs down for parents. She says some of options these could be:
– Charging for sick and/or vacation days, which could save up to $15,000 this year.
– Getting parents involved in NHCS fundraising efforts.
– Getting parents to donate to the child care centre.
– Reducing hours of operation.
– Scaling down on staff.
– Reducing administrative costs.
– Any other ideas parents might have.
The child care centre has put out a survey to find out which options would work best for local parents. The deadline to submit it is January 31st. After that, the NHCS board will review the responses. Any potential rate changes will be introduced on April 1st. The survey will be posted on the NHCS website.
Hastings County Children’s Services Supervisor Tammy Garrison also attended Wednesday’s information session. Garrison says some local parents may be eligible for subsidies through the county. Click here to find out more.
