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EXCERPTS
Ontario's plan to launch all-day kindergarten in the fall could end up making daycare more expensive.
Daycare operators say the children in programs for four- and five-year-olds help to subsidize the cost of space for younger children. When thousands of children move from daycare to full-day kindergarten, the cost for babies and toddlers is expected to go up.
Now the Association of Daycare Operators [ADCO] in the province is asking the Ontario government to consider increasing child-to-staff ratios to help make infant and toddler care less expensive.
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Karen Eilerson, who runs a daycare in Barrie, said "the four- and five-year-olds are really what keep us viable -- and so when those are pulled out of our centres, it's really going to be hard for us to make ends meet."
Eilerson and other members of the association have asked the government to allow an increase in the child-to-staff ratios to make infant and toddler care less expensive, something the government says it will consider.
"[Regular daycare fees] don't truly reflect the cost of infant and toddler child care," said Eilerson.
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- reprinted from the CBC News