It's here! In September 2025, the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario and the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care published the second edition of the Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario. Created in consultation with partners, allies and members of the early years community, the Roadmap sets out a hopeful vision of an early learning and child care system with affordable fees, decent work and pay for educators, and access for all. This report also includes policy recommendations to make that vision a reality.
This second edition of the Roadmap evaluates progress made since 2021, makes a call for renewed government collaboration, and offers a plan for Ontario to achieve bold progress in ELCC system building, funding, affordability, workforce development, and expansion.
Resources:
- Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario (2nd edition)
- Executive Summary of the Roadmap
- Our Shared Vision for Early Learning and Child Care in Ontario
URGENT ACTION NEEDED
Tell your public representatives to follow the Roadmap!
As the professional association for ECEs in Ontario, the AECEO advocates for systemic change that will benefit the ECE profession, and we are confident that a publicly-funded system is how we will achieve decent work and pay for ECEs and child care workers. Now is the time to invest in the workforce, and expand and strengthen the $10aDay system in Ontario.
There are only a few months left until the end of the current Canada-Ontario $10aDay child care agreement, and Ontario still has not signed a new funding agreement – putting this life-changing program for families at risk. Ontario must sign a new bilateral agreement with the federal government to maintain the current benefits experienced by children, families and the economy. The current agreement expires March 2026.
The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care has set up a one-click tool to send a message to provincial and federal representatives, urging them to follow the Roadmap and work together to make $10aDay child care a reality for every family who needs it, with decent work and pay for the ECE professionals who make ELCC possible in our province.
Help us spread the word - share the one-click action with your community and make sure you are engaging with the AECEO and the OCBCC on social media to help us reach more people across the province. Find the AECEO on Facebook and Instagram, and the OCBCC on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario, 1st edition 
In July 2021, the first edition of the Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario was released by the Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare (OCBCC) and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO). The Roadmap was developed in consultation with the early years and child care community, and set out our vision and shared our path forward but did not delve deeply into each area of transformation needed.
In the four years since the first edition of the Roadmap was published, our sector has faced exciting successes, changes, challenges, and ebbs and flows with the implementation of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care System. As we continue on the journey of system-building, the knowledge, experience and innovation of Ontario’s ELCC community should lead the way.
In this page, you will find short reports, policy briefs and program profiles that discuss specific issues in more detail and/or spotlight innovative practices and programs in Ontario. Scroll down to access these publications in PDF. 
Policy Brief 2: Ontario Child Care Funding Formula
In the latest publication from the OCBCC & AECEO’s Policy Brief series, Dr. Gordon Cleveland outlines what a new Ontario child care funding formula should do in order to be successful. It is anticipated that Ontario will release and implement a new child care funding formula in 2024-2025. This brief summarizes what elements should be considered, what options exist, and how to evaluate the efficacy of any new Ontario funding proposal. This brief will help inform the community’s evaluative processes, feedback and further refinements to Ontario’s forthcoming funding approach. Click here to access the full document in PDF.
Program Profile 3: Windsor-Essex Registered Early Childhood Educators Mentorship Program
In the third program profile in our series, Alicia Graovac and Barb Brown describe an innovative mentorship program in Southwestern Ontario. The Windsor-Essex Registered Early Childhood Educators (W.E.R.E.C.E.) Mentorship Program is a formalized and comprehensive mentorship program for early learning professionals in the Windsor-Essex region. Click here to access Program Profile 3 in PDF.
Position Paper and Policy Brief on Publicly Funded Salary Scale
Following extensive consultation with Early Childhood Educators, child care workers and sector experts, we have developed a Position Paper to tackle one of the most pressing issues holding back the successful building of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care System (CWELCC) in Ontario: the child care workforce crisis.
We describe the root causes of the current crisis and recommend a publicly funded salary scale of at least $30-$40 per hour for RECEs and at least $25 per hour for non-RECE staff as part of a comprehensive workforce strategy and compensation framework. Click on the image to find the full Position Paper and Policy Brief.
Program Profile 2: Reimagining Quality
In the Roadmap, we described how, “a growing number of early childhood education and care theorists and philosophers have called for a rethinking
of dominant, technical approaches to defining and monitoring quality” and that, “it is the important role of well-educated early childhood educators with decent work who bring “quality” to life through caring relationships and pedagogy with young children and families.”
The dominant narrative of quality is that it is universal, objective, and measurable through standardized evaluations, however, we know this is not the case. Quality is subjective, it is relative, and it can look completely different in different contexts. With that in mind, we’d like to invite you to learn and think alongside the Reimagining Quality Project, a partnership between Dufferin County and the Seneca College Lab School. We hope you find inspiration, joy, and excitement in imagining how you might begin to reimagine quality in your work.
Program Profile 1: Learning Enrichment Foundation
In this Program Profile we join the Learning Enrichment Foundation on their journey of learning with and from Indigenous Peoples and allies. We explore their work to provide outdoor play experiences that support relationships with the natural world in an urban setting, including their implementation of a seasonal pedagogy approach and their collaboration on the research project Designing and Implementing Environmental Inquiry Strategies in Early Years Programs.