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CWELCC guide · 2026 guidelines
Home child care agencies: why high occupancy can mean a base-fee recovery.
A home child care agency that runs fuller than 95% should expect part of its CWELCC funding to be recovered. The formula assumes 5% vacancy. When homes are fuller than that, parents pay more base fees than the formula expected, and the Region reconciles on the higher number.
How the offset works
Three steps in the formula.
Estimate base-fee revenue
Active home seats for eligible children × the daily base fee × service days.
Multiply by 0.95
The result is the expected base-fee revenue offset. It is a negative amount, subtracted from your total funding allocation — not from the benchmark allocation alone, which is only one component of it.
Reconcile on the higher number
After year-end, funding is reconciled against the higher of expected or actual base-fee revenue.
What that means at 97% occupancy
| Amount | Line |
|---|---|
| $1,000,000 | Base fees at full capacity (illustration) |
| $950,000 | Expected offset at 95% |
| $970,000 | Actual base-fee revenue at 97% — parent fees plus fee subsidy revenue and mandatory fees such as registration and deposits — used at reconciliation |
| $20,000 | Funding recovered, all else equal |
Round numbers, to show the mechanism. Your own figures depend on seats, fees and service days. Running below 95% does not work in reverse: the Region still uses the expected amount, and the agency absorbs the shortfall. The one opening is extenuating circumstances — Peel's guideline and the Ministry's both let a service manager accept a lower actual offset where a vacancy rate above 5% was outside the agency's control. Raise it with your Early Years Specialist during the year, not after the package is filed.
What an agency should do
Plan for the recovery before the letter arrives.
Track seats and fees monthly
Active home seats and fee revenue, by home, against the numbers in the allocation tool.
Set the recovery aside
If occupancy is running above 95%, accrue the likely recovery in the books each month so the cash is there in the spring. Accrue it on total base-fee revenue — parent fees, fee subsidy revenue and mandatory fees — or the accrual will fall short.
Keep compensation streams separate
Provider compensation, visitor compensation and agency operations are benchmarked separately, so record them that way.
Update the Region when homes change
Homes opening or closing mid-year change both the allocation and the offset.
Keep the books current
Have your accountant prepare the books through the year. Some service managers ask for an operating budget on a set date, others only with a funding-adjustment request; either way, current books mean far fewer surprises at reconciliation.
Keep the file audit-ready
Funding by stream, fees by home and payroll that ties out make for a shorter audit. We coordinate it with an independent auditor we work with.
Quick answers
What agencies ask us.
Why is our home child care agency facing a CWELCC recovery when we were full all year?
Because the formula assumes 5% vacancy. If your homes ran above 95% occupancy, actual base-fee revenue was higher than the expected offset, the Region reconciles on the higher number, and the difference comes back as a recovery.
Is the base-fee offset different for agencies and centres?
The 0.95 multiplier is the same. Centres are measured on operating spaces; agencies are measured on active home seats. How the reporting is submitted differs by service manager — Toronto, for instance, lets agencies file at the agency level rather than per home.
Does GATS work with home child care agencies?
Yes. GATS prepares CWELCC reconciliations for several licensed home child care agencies, as well as centres in Peel, Halton and Toronto, keeps agency books by home and by funding stream, and coordinates the audit with an independent licensed auditor.
Sources: the provincial CWELCC cost-based funding guideline, base fee revenue offset section, as reproduced in 2026 service-manager guidelines such as the County of Wellington 2026 guidelines; Ontario child care funding guidelines. Terms differ between service managers; we confirm the current ones for yours. General information for Ontario licensed home child care agencies, not advice for your agency. See also the reconciliation, step by step.
Running an agency above 95%?
Call 647-870-8498 or email info@ghayurtax.com. We'll estimate the recovery and show you what can still be done this year.