The City of Ottawa spent approximately $10 million to create and subsidize new child care spaces. Pictured is Andrew Fleck child care centre, a provider that receives funding from the city, on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. Photo by Erika Ibrahim

Ottawa is spending almost 90 per cent less to help parents who need spots in licensed child care spaces, according to an analysis of the city’s 2020 budget.

The city’s increased spending came from several one-time transfers in 2017 from the province in an effort to make child care more affordable.

This funding went toward creating about 400 new licensed child care spaces by the end of 2020.

“You can build a beautiful child care centre. You can’t really hire people to work in it unless you have a budget [to pay them]. Then parents end up having to pay for it.”

Martha Friendly, founder of a national child-care policy group called the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, said to keep these new spaces running, the city would have to not just create new spaces and subsidize child care fees, but also put money toward paying staff.

She said when governments don’t subsidize staff salaries, those costs are passed along to parents, making child-care fees even higher and more out of reach.

“So essentially you could have it running, and the room is just sitting there [empty].”

Special purpose funding also helped approximately 2,000 families with the high costs of child care, according to a city spokesperson.

Ontario licenses child care centres, as well as private-home day care agencies. These spaces may care for children of different age groups, such as infants, toddlers and pre-school-aged children. These spaces can also be for school-aged children before or after school hours, or when schools are closed.

Child care fee subsidies are given, according to a family’s level of financial need.

In an emailed response, a city spokesperson said that they continue to receive provincial and federal investments, but did not explain how much and whether it was enough to cover keeping the newly created child care spaces going long-term.

This drop in funding comes at a time when the Ontario government announced cuts to child care funding for municipalities.

Starting this year, Ottawa will have to pay 20 per cent of costs to create new centres. This change results in a reduced projected revenue of $2.7 million, according to a staff report presented to the committee overseeing the child services budget.

The provincial government says this change is part of reducing administrative costs and wasteful government policies.

Child care in Ottawa may become less accessible and affordable as an effect of the provincial cuts, according to the report. The funding drop may also result in fewer supports to child care providers.

The staff report says that the City would discuss proposals on how to make up this shortfall in the 2020 budget. However, there is no mention of proposals of the budget tabled for this year.

Jason Sabourin, Manager of Children’s Services in Ottawa, could not be reached for comment before this story’s deadline.

Large local child care provider Andrew Fleck Child Services could also not be reached for comment before this story’s deadline.