Ontario has ended a $50 million fund that helped child care centres cover increasing labour costs without passing them on to parents.
The move has already led to at least one child care centre in Peel Region, west of Toronto, telling parents that their fees will increase _ up to an extra $72 a month for full-time infant care.
Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care says more will likely follow.
Ontario's so-called fee stabilization support was introduced last year under the then-Liberal government as the minimum wage increased from $11.60 an hour to $14 an hour.
It was essentially a way to subsidize the pay raises in facilities where staff had earned less than $14 an hour, so the costs weren't put on parents in the form of higher fees.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson says the supports parents need will still be in place.
Thompson's office says the fee stabilization support was provided as one-time funding, but the sector says it wasn't billed that way originally.