Funding Opportunities for Child Care Providers

The City of Cornwall is committed to supporting quality child care services. Explore current funding opportunities available to help local child care providers enhance their programs and support early childhood development.

Special Purpose Funding

We provide annual funding to non-profit child care operators through service agreements. If you are a licensed provider with a service agreement, you may be eligible for:

• Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) Funding for ages 0-5
• Workforce Compensation Funding for school-age children (6-12)
• Provincial Wage Enhancement Grant for school-age children (6-12)
• General Operating Grants for school-age programs (6-12)
• Professional Learning Funding
• Pay Equity Funding where applicable
• Enhanced Support Funding

How to apply

Please email us your completed Special Purpose Funding Application. You can download our Business Practice Guidelines to learn more. You’ll need to submit an annual Information Submission Package once you qualify.

Wage Enhancement Grant

The Wage Enhancement Grant helps improve wages and benefits for staff at licensed child care centres and home care agencies. This funding allows operators to offer more competitive pay while keeping child care affordable for families. Please email us or call 613-933-6282 for more information and learn how to apply.

For staff at licensed child care centres, the grant provides a wage increase of up to $2.00 per hour plus benefits for Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs) and other program staff. For licensed home child care providers contracted with an agency, the Home Child Care Enhancement Grant provides an increase of up to $20.00 per day.

Who is eligible to receive wage enhancement?

All licensed child care centres and home child care agencies in Cornwall are eligible to apply for this funding. The grant can be used to increase wages for Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs), non-RECE program staff, child care supervisors, home child care visitors and licensed home child care providers.

The funding does not apply to:

• Cook, custodial and other non-program staff
• Special needs funded enhanced support staff
• Staff hired through a third party such as a temp agency
• Staff working in eligible positions and are making above the Ministry communicated wage cap

Start-up Grants

You can apply for a start-up grant to fund new licensed child care spaces that align with the provincial growth plan and are approved for the CWELCC program. Please email us your completed Special Purpose Funding Application to apply. 

Infrastructure Fund

The Canada-Ontario Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund provides funding to create new, licensed child care spaces with a focus on increasing access for underserved communities.

This fund supports not-for-profit child care centres and works alongside the Start-up Grant program. The funding must be used for building new child care facilities or for renovating, retrofitting, or expanding existing ones to meet provincial licensing requirements for group sizes.