The city says it received responses from 979 of the 1,054 licensed operators by the deadline.
Of those who submitted documents to the city, 885 indicated their intention to participate in the program while 94 indicated their intention to opt out.
This would indicate significant uptake in the final two weeks of the application period, with an additional 84 centers deciding to opt-in.
Dozens of centers, however, failed to declare their intention in one way or another by the deadline, despite being required to do so.
Under the terms of the scheme, parents at participating centers will now receive a discount of 25 per cent of the fees they have paid, retroactive to April.
Fees will then be further reduced by 37 percent in December.
That, in turn, will mean parents at participating centers will pay 50 percent less than they did just a few months ago.
“Early learning and child care reimbursements across Canada will provide much-needed financial support to Toronto families and is the first phase of a plan that will continue until 2025,” Mayor John Tory said in a press release that accompanies the final statistics. “Board staff is working diligently to ensure that child care operators can be quickly approved into the program so families can receive reimbursement and fee reductions.”
The province had originally given operators until Sept. 1 to apply to join the program, but eventually pushed back the deadline by two months in an effort to get reluctant centers to sign up.
It also recently pledged to ensure that revenue for licensed childcare providers remains unchanged until 2023 in response to concerns about a lack of transparency for future years of the scheme.
In its statement, the city said it continues to “actively review” applications from entities that have submitted their intentions to participate in the program.
The city says that as applications are approved, funding will go directly to operators, who will be responsible for providing discounts to parents.
CP24.com has reached out to other municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area for final turnout numbers and will update this story as the data becomes available.
