Valerie Colasanti says $10 a daycare will help boost Lambton’s economy by providing quality child care for kids and more opportunities for women.

And the head of social services in Lambton County is hopeful it will make a big dent in the wait list which can leave some parents wondering if they can get child care for over two years.

The provincial and federal government have signed a $10.2 billion deal which will see the cost of licenced day drop by 25 per cent next month. The federal government’s goal is to provide daycare for $10 per day by 2025. Care for infants and toddlers can be seven times more than that.

In Lambton, Colasanti says some families put their name on the waiting list for child care two years before they need it, particularly for infants and toddlers. Right now there are 1,322 children waiting for licenced child care spaces. There are about 57 child care centres with 3,200 children enrolled.

Colasanti is hopeful the funding boost will create the 85,000 spaces the government projects.

And she says this is just the boost families need to allow women to return to the workforce after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s really good news for the economy, the community, and those looking to enter the workforce. And a lot of people have still opted not to return to childcare, as we know, many women left the workforce during COVID,” she says.

But COVID-19 has been hard on the child care industry as well. Colasanti says early childhood educators have left the business and now Lambton is actively working to recruit more workers to meet demand particularly for school aged children where the shortage of workers is acute.