Child care in Barrie: waitlists, $10-a-day spaces and who decides

Is there a waitlist for daycare in Barrie, and when should you sign up?

There is no single list. The County of Simcoe, which manages child care for Barrie, does not run a central waitlist for spaces; it points families to its map of centres and to the Province's licensed child care search, and each centre keeps its own list. Parents told the County the same thing in its own consultation: the barriers they named first were lengthy waitlists and complicated, inconsistent waitlist processes, and they asked for one place to see where spaces are open. The Province is building a provincial child care search and application tool, but its July 2026 funding memo gives no date for it.

The one list the County does run is for fee subsidy, ranked first come, first served with priority by income. On April 25, 2025 the County paused enrolment of new subsidy families because the budgeted subsidy money could not cover the families already enrolled. Its page, last modified October 1, 2026, still reads "Fee Subsidy Waitlist Opening Soon" and says a limited number of applications will be opened by income, family size and need. In 2025, 3,040 children in 2,200 families received fee assistance. The County publishes no count of families waiting, for subsidy or for a space.

How many licensed child care spaces does Barrie have?

The Province's licensing search lists 70 licensed child care centres with a Barrie address, holding 7,085 licensed spaces for children up to age 12, and one home child care agency that serves the whole County. Most of those spaces are for school-age children before and after school. For children too young for school, full-day spaces number 2,708, in 46 centres: 1,777 for preschoolers, 778 for toddlers and 153 for infants. Thirty-eight of the centres are in public or Catholic schools.

The number of centres has barely moved. Counting the licences active at the end of each year, Barrie has had between 64 and 72 centres every year since 2014. Whatever growth there has been came from larger centres, not more of them.

Set against the 7,340 Barrie children aged 0 to 4 in the 2021 census, the 2,708 full-day spaces come to about 37 for every 100 children. That overstates coverage: it compares 2026 spaces with 2021 children, and the city has grown since.

Is child care in Barrie $10 a day?

No, not yet. The Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement cut fees for children under six in enrolled centres by up to 25% in April 2022 and by up to another 37% at the end of 2022. Since January 1, 2025 those fees have been capped at $22 a day, and the provincial average was $19. The County confirmed the $22 maximum for 2026. Its service plan set the goal of an average of $10 a day by March 2026; no County or provincial source this site has read reports that the average has reached $10.

Most Barrie centres are in the system: 62 of the 70 answer yes to enrolment in the Province's search, holding 2,152 of the 2,708 full-day spaces for children under school age. The County's own map and the Province's search disagree on a few centres; four are outside the system in both: Barrie Montessori & Elementary Private School, Kids Barrie Childcare + Preschool, Koalaroo Preschool and Uptown Montessori Barrie. Fees at a centre outside the system are not capped.

Are new child care spaces being created in Barrie?

Some, and the money for more stops at the end of 2026. The Province gave the County a target of new spaces for children under six by the end of 2026, and the County has published it two ways: 4,859 on its directed-growth page and 4,995 in the August 2025 version of its service plan. Neither document explains the difference. By January 2026 the County reported 3,776 of 3,987 planned spaces created for 2022 to 2025, with 1,008 more in process for 2026, and all of the 2025–2026 allocation committed. Its page says no allocations are authorized beyond 2026, when the federal-provincial agreement as extended runs out. In total, the County expects 12,993 spaces for children 0 to 5 in the $10-a-day system by the end of 2026.

Barrie's part is published only to April 2025: 559 new spaces approved in Barrie from 2022, 22% of the 2,519 approved County-wide by then. Across the County, applications came in for more than 8,000 spaces, four times the number available. On the County's measure, licensed spaces in the system reached 33.2 for every 100 young children County-wide at the end of 2025, against a provincial target of 37; the County itself warns that its ratio counts kindergarten before- and after-school spaces and so looks higher than full-day care is. It has promised ratios by municipality but has not published one for Barrie.

Who decides: the Province, the County or the City?

Barrie is a separated city, so it buys social services from the County. Provincial regulation names the County of Simcoe as the service system manager for the County, Barrie and Orillia, and the Child Care and Early Years Act gives that manager the plan, the money and the say on which providers are funded; it can even advise the Province against licensing a centre that does not fit the plan. Barrie's councillors sit on the County's Human Services Committee but have no vote on County Council. A candidate for Barrie council can press the County and the Province; the City itself does not run, license or fund centres directly.

What does the City of Barrie pay for child care?

A small part of a large system. The County's 2026 child care budget is $181.7 million, of which the federal government pays about 75%, the Province about 21% and the municipalities under 4%. In the County's 2026 budget for the City, Barrie's share of early learning and child care system management is $3.66 million, 42% of the municipal requirement it divides among Barrie, Orillia and itself. That figure is set under a new agreement Barrie council approved on June 17, 2026, running to the end of 2029, which changes how costs are shared; under the old agreement Barrie's child care share was about $1.9 million to $2 million a year, so the two are not a like-for-like increase. The City runs no child care centres of its own.

The longest consistent record is the City's annual return to the Province, which shows child care and early years spending of $1.97 million in 2010 and $3.06 million in 2025.

What has Barrie council done about child care?

Very little on the record. Searching the minutes of every council and committee meeting since 2013, this site found no motion, deputation or budget amendment about child care spaces, fees or waitlists from 2022 to 2026. Council received the County's budget presentations each year and, on June 17, 2026, approved the new services agreement with the County that sets Barrie's share. No 2026 candidate's published statements this site has collected mention child care.

Related: education and the school board races, where your property taxes go, and housing.

Reporting on this issue

• October 14, 2015 Child care a struggle for many Barrie area families Simcoe.com · By Laurie Watt