A report published in July 2026 by economist Dr. Jim Stanford, commissioned by the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, puts a precise number on something that advocates have argued for years: childcare is not a social expense. It is an economic engine. Stanford’s analysis found that Ontario’s GDP in 2024 was $13.6 billion larger than it would have been without the expansion of licensed childcare services since 2019. The economic case for childcare investment is now settled. The access problem for Ontario families and operators is not.
What $13.6 Billion Looks Like on the Ground
The $13.6 billion figure comes from three compounding effects working simultaneously. Expanded childcare services directly generated new economic output. That output created demand in supply chain and consumer industries. Most significantly, greater access to affordable childcare allowed more Ontario women to work, work full-time, and stay in the labour force. Core-age female labour force participation in Ontario grew by 2 full percentage points between 2019 and 2026, adding the equivalent of 66,000 additional workers to the provincial labour force. Part-time employment among core-age women fell by 1.2 percentage points in the same period, adding another approximately 15,000 full-time equivalent workers. Combined, these effects produced roughly 81,500 additional full-time equivalent workers for Ontario’s economy over seven years.
The fiscal returns have been equally significant. Because of the economic growth attributable to childcare expansion, the Ontario provincial government collected approximately $2.25 billion in additional tax revenue in 2024 alone. According to Stanford’s analysis, that figure slightly exceeded the province’s own net contribution to ELCC services in the same year. In other words, Ontario’s childcare investment has already paid for itself in tax revenue, before accounting for any of the broader social benefits to families and children.
Ontario Left Money on the Table
Stanford is direct about a critical qualifier in his findings: these gains occurred despite Ontario’s incomplete and inconsistent implementation of CWELCC. Ontario was the last province to sign a formal CWELCC agreement, not doing so until March 2022. By end-2024, the province was approximately 25 percent behind its space creation targets, having created 36,000 of the 48,000 new spaces expected by that point. ELCC employment growth in Ontario has been 34 percent since 2019, compared to 40 percent for Canada as a whole, reflecting that slower pace of expansion.
Even if Ontario met all of its remaining targets, the ratio of licensed spaces to children would reach only 4.1 per 10 children, well below the 5.9 per 10 standard accepted by most other provinces. Average fees for Ontario families currently sit at approximately $19 per day, with a cap of $22 for CWELCC-enrolled centres. The $10 per day target set in 2022 has not been met. Stanford’s conclusion is clear: the economic gains documented in this report would have been substantially larger had Ontario moved faster and more consistently.
What This Means for Parents Right Now
For parents, the Stanford report confirms something felt at the ground level every day: childcare access directly determines whether a parent can return to work, whether they work full-time or part-time, and by extension what their household can afford. The 2 percentage point increase in Ontario’s core-age female labour force participation is not an abstract economic statistic. It represents tens of thousands of parents, most of them mothers, who were able to return to work because childcare became more accessible.
The inverse is also true. Every family that cannot find a licensed spot is a family constrained in its economic participation. Ontario is still 25 percent behind on space creation and still above the $10 per day fee target. For parents whose mat leave is ending now, the gap between the system as designed and the system as it exists today is not a policy concern. It is a practical emergency. ChildSpot is a new option for Ontario parents facing exactly this situation. The app shows real-time availability at licensed Ontario childcare centres, filtered by date, location, age group, and CWELCC status. Every listing is verified. When a parent finds a spot that works, they book and pay securely through the app in minutes.
What This Means for Operators
For licensed childcare operators, the Stanford report is a powerful validation of the sector’s economic role and a reminder of the financial dynamics of vacancy. Over 17,000 new ELCC jobs have been created in Ontario since 2019. Total ELCC wage payments in the province will exceed $3 billion in 2026, nearly double the 2019 level. Real wages for ELCC workers have grown 15 percent since 2019, twice the rate of real wage growth in the broader Ontario labour market. These are meaningful improvements. They also reflect a sector that is still navigating the tension between rising operating costs and the fee constraints of the CWELCC program.
Within that financial context, vacancy matters more than ever. The Auditor General of Ontario found that approximately 27 percent of licensed spaces sit vacant on any given day, driven by short-term fluctuations rather than chronic undersupply. These are spots that exist, that operators are already staffed to fill, and that generate no revenue when they sit empty. ChildSpot gives licensed Ontario operators a free, dedicated channel to post those openings directly to parents who are actively searching right now. Payments are processed securely via Stripe. No monthly fees. No commissions. Every filled spot is incremental revenue on a cost base that does not change whether the spot is occupied or not.
Dr. Stanford’s conclusion is that quality, accessible, universal childcare services are a precondition for economic progress, and that the faster Ontario moves toward that goal, the greater the economic gains for the province. ChildSpot is not a substitute for that system-level progress. It is a tool for the parents and operators who cannot wait for it.
Parents can search available spots at licensed Ontario childcare centres at app.childspotapp.com or download the ChildSpot app on iOS. Licensed operators can list their centre for free at childspotapp.com/for-operators.
Source: Stanford, Jim. (July 2026). “The Economic Benefits of Expanded Child Care Services in Ontario.” Centre for Future Work. Commissioned by the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario. https://childcareontario.org/stanford-report/
Additional reference: Office of the Auditor General of Ontario. (October 2025). Performance Audit: Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Program.