ABSTRACT
The provision of licensed child care services in Ontario has expanded dramatically in recent years. In the last decade the number of child care centers in the province rose by more than 60 per cent to over 3,100 facilities. Nevertheless, it is widely recognized that the cost of quality child care is prohibitive for many households, that demand outstrips supply, and that there are substantial spatial differentials in service levels. Thus a persistent social policy issue is the availability of good quality child care. The central theme of this chapter is that increasing equity in geographic access to child care is an important planning goal. It is argued that the decentralized form of service delivery-that is, the form in which many services in the welfare state are manifest in Ontariomilitates against attempts to foster equity in access to most personal social services, including child care. The chapter opens with a brief historical account of the development of the social service system in Ontario, showing that, in contrast with provision in other jurisdictions, services in Ontario have traditionally been organized on a decentralized basis. I then examine certain key characteristics of this form of delivery of social services. Next the development of the formal child care system in Ontario is described and then trends in the levels and geographic distribution of service are assessed. Finally, I discuss the potential contribution of recent policy shifts.
