A 2.2 billion five-year action plan was rolled out last year in Ontario, aiming to create more child care spaces with a better affordability. The promise of free child care for preschoolers starting in 2020, was also made by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne as part of the pre-election budget.
This is a good news for many people, even for me as a new Master’s graduate who has many things lining up before having a baby based on my personal plan. The impression of Ontario’s high child care expenses is long-standing. It could come from the anxiety when read the report that only 20 per cent of families with one child can afford licensed child care in Ontario or the vulnerability of the people in our life catching on the dilemma of going back to work or staying at home.
However, affordability is just part of the child care story. While parents in cities complain about licensed child care being too expensive, those in rural areas said centres are too far away. It is understandable that resources are more concentrated in certain areas than the others as the population of the divisions of Ontario vary a lot. Inspired by the Pudding’s amazing work on the accessibility to abortion clinics in the United States, I set out on this story by measuring the length of driving time to the nearest child care (temporarily set aside the match of a kid’s age and the child care’s target age group) to take a peek at how divided the challenge we are facing.