The District of Rainy River Services Board (DRRSB) has released a new five-year, five-point plan to enhance and improve childcare and early years services even as it faces continuing challenges affecting the province and some specific to the region.
“Children’s Services in the Rainy River District is supported by dedicated professionals and a community that cares deeply about its children,” Tanis Fretter, Children’s Services and Income Support Manager, said in a press release.
“This plan reflects what we heard from our community and gives us a clear path forward to strengthen access, inclusion, and high-quality services for families.”
The plan’s five priorities were developed by the District of Rainy River Services Board (DRRSB) after wide-ranging public consultation with more than 300 people, including parents, caregivers, educators, local leaders and employers through surveys, focus groups, and interviews.
Those priorities are:
- To enhance families’ access to childcare and early years services.
- Invest in childcare and early years educators and support staff.
- Improve inclusion and responsiveness for equity-deserving families and children.
- Maintain high-quality childcare and early years services and enhance consistency across the district.
- Continue to grow community partnerships and strengthen the network of support for families and children.
Some of the more persistent problems with delivering childcare in Ontario have been experienced across the province, including ongoing workforce shortages, increased demand for childcare and limited supply following the rollout of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system, and sector-wide strain in the aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“This plan also aims to address challenges felt more acutely in Rainy River District, such as meeting the diverse needs of our geographically dispersed population, many of whom live in remote areas,” the report’s authors wrote.
In recent years, the DRRSB has had to adjust to shifts in how childcare and EarlyON programs are delivered, expanding its role from managing services to becoming a direct operator of childcare, EarlyON, and SNR programs. New school builds and renovations have helped integrate early years and family supports.
“The expansion has enabled us to significantly expand licensed childcare spaces as well as increase the number of childcare and EarlyON programs co-located with schools.”
The plan also hopes to address pressures created by the Canada‑Wide Early Learning and Child Care system, a federal–provincial initiative designed to make childcare more affordable and accessible, that has reduced costs but, in some cases, created a shortage of spaces, particularly for lower-income families.
“As parent fees for CWELCC spaces have declined, finding a space has become more challenging for families, particularly those relying on fee subsidies,” the authors said. “This plan will look at local opportunities to address these inequities where possible.”
The DRRSB has set itself a comprehensive and ambitious multitude of tasks to achieve the goals of five-point plan, from increasing capacity, to the introduction of more flexible childcare hours, to working with community partners, to focusing on staff recruitment, development and retention.
Among its many planned activities, it is also exploring fee subsidies for equity-deserving groups, centralized waitlists, flexible programming that responds to local community needs, and improving quality assurance by “introducing, testing, and refining a quality tool to support and track program outcomes.”
More information on the plan can be found on the board’s website at www.rrdssab.ca.
