Starting a daycare centre in Canada runs province by province: each province licences the centre, sets the staff ratios, and runs its own funding and subsidy route.
Applies in: CA
There is no Canadian daycare centre licence. Each province licences the centre, sets the staff certification levels and the child-to-staff ratios, and runs its own funding and parent-subsidy route — so this checklist is a routing list. Item 1 applies to everyone. Items 2 to 9 each apply in one province only: work the item for your province and skip the rest. Item 10 applies everywhere. Each item names the live guide it rests on, and the full steps are in that guide. Nothing here adds a new rule, and no fees are stated here; fees live in the province guides.
Done when: you can say you are opening a centre in a dedicated premises, in one named province, and you have read the national comparison of the two models.
The national daycare guide sets out the two models — centre-based care and home daycare — and how to choose between them. This checklist is only about the first model. If the business is care in your own home for a handful of children, stop here and use a home daycare guide instead; the licensing path is different.
Done when: a location that can be licensed is secured, the mandatory information session is taken, and the application package is submitted.
This item applies only in Alberta. The Alberta guide covers securing a location that can be licensed, taking the mandatory information session, building the application package, submitting the application and the fee, staffing the centre to the regulation, and renewing or varying the licence. It also covers the funding side: the Affordability Grant and the subsidy. Follow the guide's order — the session comes before the application, not after.
Done when: the application is filed with the Schedule B records, the building approvals are cleared, and certified staff are hired to the Schedule E ratios.
This item applies only in British Columbia. The British Columbia guide covers the regulation's own categories of centre-based care, starting with the health authority rather than a lease, filing the application with the Schedule B records, clearing the building approvals in parallel, fitting out the premises to the numbers in the regulation, hiring certified staff to the Schedule E ratios, passing the investigation and inspection, and registering the business and applying for ChildCareBC funding.
Done when: the information session is attended, the licence application is filed, and the rooms are planned to the classification rules and ratios.
This item applies only in Manitoba. The Manitoba guide covers starting with the information session, filing the licence application, staffing the centre to the classification rules, running the rooms to the ratios and group sizes, and the funding picture: the operating grant, the fees, and the subsidy.
Done when: the designation decision is made, the facility licence is applied for, and the health and fire inspections are passed.
This item applies only in New Brunswick. The New Brunswick guide covers deciding whether to seek designation, applying for the facility licence, passing the health and fire inspections, meeting the educator qualification rules, staffing to the ratios, and setting parent fees and the subsidy route, along with what the licence costs and how it renews.
Done when: the regional Early Learning and Child Development Division has been contacted, the program proposal and facility plans are prepared, and the municipal and provincial approvals are in hand.
This item applies only in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Newfoundland and Labrador guide covers contacting the regional division first, preparing the program proposal and facility plans, getting municipal and provincial approvals, meeting the certification rules, staffing to the ratios, applying for the Operating Grant Program, and what the licence costs and how it renews.
Done when: the licence proposal is started, the licence application is filed, and the building is fitted to the space rules.
This item applies only in Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia guide covers starting with the licence proposal, filing the licence application, fitting the building to the space rules, staffing the centre to the classification rules, running the rooms to the ratios and group sizes, and the funding, fees, and subsidy route, in the order that avoids rework.
Done when: the licence application is filed through the Child Care Licensing System (CCLS), the seven building approvals are cleared, and the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) money question is answered in the business plan.
This item applies only in Ontario. The Ontario guide covers filing the licence application through CCLS, budgeting the licence fee by capacity, clearing all seven building approvals, staffing to the ratios with a qualified supervisor, sizing the premises for licensed capacity, answering the CWELCC question before writing the business plan, and registering the business itself. The Government of Ontario's licence page states that child care providers must follow the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 and its regulations, and that the process to get a child care licence takes approximately 4 to 6 months.
Done when: the application to start a regulated centre is filed, the board of directors is set up, and the building, fire, and health checks are cleared.
This item applies only in Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan guide covers applying to start a regulated centre, setting up the board of directors, staffing to the classification rules, running the rooms to the ratios, clearing the building, fire, and health checks, and what parents pay under the province's $10-a-day framework as the guide sets it out.
Done when: the business itself is registered in your province and the centre's licence file and business file are kept separate.
This item applies everywhere. A child care licence authorizes the program; it is not a business registration. The Ontario guide's final step covers registering the business itself, and the same split applies in every province: the licence file holds the program approvals, and the business file holds the registration, tax accounts, and payroll set-up the centre needs as an employer.
This checklist states no licence fees, ratio numbers, or funding amounts. Those figures sit in the linked province guides, each drawn from that province's own pages, and they change on provincial schedules. Quebec's permit system for centres (CPE and garderie permits) and Prince Edward Island's centre licence are not covered by any item here, because this site does not carry a dedicated centre guide for either province in this checklist's target set; the national guide's section on provinces without a dedicated guide is the starting point for those two.
The province issues the child care licence. The city still has its own role: building approvals, fire inspection, and zoning sit with the municipality and the local health and fire services. In Ontario, for example, the province's page on applying for a child care licence states that providers must follow the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 and its regulations, and that the licence process takes approximately 4 to 6 months; the Ontario guide on this site counts seven building approvals to clear alongside the ministry licence.
No. Every item here is for a centre: a licensed facility caring for groups of children in a dedicated premises. Home daycare — care in the operator's own home, for a small number of children — is licensed or regulated under different rules in each province, and this site carries separate home daycare guides for Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.
The eight provinces with a dedicated centre guide on this site: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. Each province item below points at its own guide, because the licensing office, the staff classification levels, and the ratios differ by province. Quebec and Prince Edward Island run their own centre permit systems and are not covered by an item here.
In most provinces the licensing work starts before a lease is signed, because the licence sets requirements the premises must meet. The Alberta guide opens with securing a location that can be licensed and then a mandatory information session; the British Columbia guide opens with the health authority, not a lease; the Nova Scotia guide opens with a licence proposal. Read your province's item before signing anything.
The ratios and group sizes are set by your province's regulation, by age group, and they differ across provinces. Each province guide on this site has a dedicated ratios step: Manitoba's guide covers running the rooms to the ratios and group sizes, Saskatchewan's covers running the rooms to the ratios, and British Columbia's covers hiring certified staff to the Schedule E ratios. This checklist does not restate the numbers, because the wrong province's ratio is worse than none.
No. Licence fees, application fees, and funding amounts are stated in the linked province guides, which carry the figures from each province's own pages. Fee schedules change, so check the current figure in your province's guide and on the licensing office's page before you budget.