EXCERPTS
[Sault Ste. Marie] City council will need to decide later this year if it still wants to run child day care operations.
The decision will be based on a staff report and recommendations it will receive as part of an analysis asked for as a result of cuts to subsidized child care spaces.
The subsidized child care cuts will come as a result of cuts from provincial funding formulas.
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As a result of cuts from the Ministry of Education, the Sault Ste. Marie District Social Services Administration Board Child Care Service System will be funded differently.
The new funding formula is based on a number of variables, including the number of children within various catchment areas as well as other factors.
As a result, all the large DSSABs in Northern Ontario are receiving a funding decrease.
Of the 399 subsidized child-care spaces available through the District Social Services Administration Board's catchment area, 61.5 will be cut.
Of those 19 cuts will occur at the city's Jessie Irving and Maycourt child care centres, the remaining from other day care operations in the DSSAB catchment area, council was told.
Councillors reacted with dismay to the news, especially after learning that the city's waiting list of 1,044 children needing child care services is contrary to other cities in Northern Ontario where waiting lists are almost nil.
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- reprinted from the Sault Star