Google News gave me this headline yesterday morning “Child-care costs ‘astronomical’ in most of Canada, despite progress in some provinces” – Astronomical?!?! How can I NOT click on it to read more!

Apparently costs of infant care in Toronto is literally 10x times that in Montreal. The article also goes on to compare provinces with government programs available, as well as average costs in various cities, and no surprise – Toronto came in as most expensive averaging $1675/month apparently.

To be honest I want to know which parts of Toronto they surveyed (show me the spreadsheet!), because infant care in the heart of Toronto can be as high as $2400/month. For one of these centers in the financial district, they had security cameras as well as the ability to pop in anytime during your breaks to visit the baby!!! How can you not want to pay another mortgage for that! 😆

Whereas even in Markham, it’s common to find centers at $1800/month. We were lucky, when we were searching for daycare that we were able to get 7am – 6pm for around $1500 all in (LOL) in North Markham (and it is a 20min drive from home for us).

Aside from actual location data, I also want to know the cost by types of care – are they all daycare centers? Or are they a mixed of home cares, centers, or private nannies? I’ve had friends that definitely opted to have a nanny once they had two children because the cost of a nanny can be a lot lower than two full time daycare center costs.

However, I’ve also heard friend of friends that may become a stay at home mom because her take home pay may even be less than the cost of daycares. While everyone makes the right decisions for their own family, I do think that some government support/policy to help with daycare costs would be helpful (especially here in Ontario). My hope is that it will help bring more women back to workforce for those that want to, and drive greater gender equity in the long run.

I want to close with two things:

1. Again, when reading things on the internet, put your critical thinking hat on!

2. Comment below to share your costs of daycare if we want to compare:

Class: infant, toddler, preschool, kindergarten

Cost per month

Full or part time

Area of the city