By John Francis,
Bruce Peninsula Press
Tobermory parents who want to register their children for summer daycare are having to put their names on a waiting list. This is causing a good deal of stress for many families.
Tobermory Primary Place Supervisor Andrea Elliott is completely sympathetic but says “Our hands are tied.” She explains that while waiting lists are a fact of life at most daycares — including the Bruce Peninsula Family Centre in Lion’s Head — the Tobermory facility has almost always had space available.
But no more.
There are already 12 children on the waiting list for the summer of 2026 and Elliott is certain that there are more to come. Those twelve families (and counting) will have to find alternative child care or take time off work.
The problem is that after decades of low birth-rates, Tobermory experienced a baby boom in recent years, especially during 2021 and 2022. This means that there are a lot of children in that one age group needing care.
Daycare facilities are heavily subsidized by various levels of government, but this comes with strict standards to meet and regulations to follow.
The Tobermory daycare serves three age groups: Toddlers (18 to 30 months), Pre-schoolers (30 to 72 months) and School-age children (up to 12 years old).
Tobermory Primary Place has a capacity of 56 children: 30 School-age kids (of whom only 8 can be under 84 months), 16 Pre-schoolers and 10 Toddlers. The Toddler and Pre-school programs are both at capacity, as is the under-84-months component of the School-age program.
Despite this, Primary Place will be running under capacity this summer, because there will still be space available for kids between 84 and 132 months.
Because the daycare will not be at capacity, requests for increased funding or increased capacity fall on deaf ears.
Province-wide RECE Shortage
Elliott points out that even if she could somehow get permission to accept increased numbers of younger children, she could not find qualified staff.
In an email, Katherine Crivea, Supervisor at the Bruce Peninsula Family Centre in Lion’s Head, echoes Elliott’s point:
“Like many licensed child care programs across Ontario, BPFC is experiencing the impacts of a province-wide shortage of Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs). While physical space is one factor, staffing availability is currently the primary driver of capacity challenges throughout the sector. Licensed child care centres are required to maintain specific staff-to-child ratios, and when qualified staff are not available, programs are unable to operate at full licensed capacity.
At this time, BPFC is operating at full capacity in Lion’s Head and maintains an active waitlist, including for our school age program. Demand for licensed child care continues to exceed available spaces, reflecting broader trends seen across the region and province. Our current licensing capacity is for 15 school age children.
We are actively working to expand our capacity and strengthen staffing levels in order to better meet the needs of families in our community. This includes ongoing recruitment efforts and longer-term planning to support growth; however, these solutions take time and are influenced by workforce availability across the early learning sector.”
Can an Alternative be Found?
A group of Tobermory parents are working with The Meeting Place Tobermory in an effort to organize an alternative for their children. Providing space for this sort of initiative falls within the Meeting Place’s core mandate.
Katie Oblak speaks for that parent group. She said, in an email:
“Our community is facing an urgent childcare crisis, one that has intensified quickly due to a recent child boom, the first in decades. What should be a positive sign of growth has instead created a bottleneck for school‑age children, who now have limited school age programs and no alternative options in town. For many families, this has become an impossible situation.
As a seasonal tourist community; our busiest months are critical. Both employers and employees rely on summer income, yet parents are being forced to reduce hours or decline work entirely because they cannot find safe care for their children. This is no longer only a family issue; it is a community-wide economic concern.”
In conjunction with The Meeting Place, the group is hoping to create a “temporary summer camp solution”. They will be reaching out to churches and other community organizations for help and cooperation. If you would like to help, email her at katieloblak@gmail.com
Oblak summarizes the situation: “Families need care. Businesses need workers. Our town needs a solution.”
