Help Finding Child Care

Child Care Categories

• Licensed
  This category includes centre-based full-day child care, certain types of home-based child care, nursery schools, and preschools. These facilities are inspected, monitored, and regulated by provincial and territorial authorities, adhering to established standards for quality and safety.
• Unlicensed
  Often home-based, unlicensed care is not subject to the same regulatory oversight as licensed care. While these providers are not inspected or monitored and do not need to meet most provincial standards, they remain an essential, flexible option for many families, subject to limitations on the number of children cared for.
• Centre-based
  Child care services offered in commercial buildings, similar to a classroom setting, that must comply with all licensing requirements and early learning programming.
• Home-based
  Child care can be provided by a relative or non-relative either in the child's home or in the caregiver's home. They have fewer children and usually have more flexible operational hours. Home-based child care can provide many types of child care: full-time, part-time, extended, emergency, respite, and before and after school care.