If you run a licensed childcare centre in Ontario, you probably have a waitlist. You might even take pride in it — a long waitlist feels like proof that your program is in demand.
But here's a question: when was the last time you called through that list and actually filled a spot on the first try?
If you're like most directors I've spoken to, the answer is almost never. You call the first family — they found care somewhere else eight months ago. Second family — they were looking for infant, not toddler. Third — no answer. Fourth — moved to Barrie. By the time you reach someone who's actually a fit, you've spent your afternoon on the phone instead of with the children in your care.
Your waitlist isn't full of families. It's full of ghosts.
Why waitlists decay
It's nobody's fault, really. The way Ontario childcare waitlists work practically guarantees they'll be inaccurate.
Parents are told — correctly — that they should apply to as many centres as possible. So a family looking for one toddler spot in Pickering might appear on waitlists at six or seven centres across Durham Region. The moment one centre offers them a spot, they disappear from the market. But they almost never go back and remove themselves from the other six lists.
Now multiply this by hundreds of families across years of accumulated entries, and you've got a waitlist that looks like 200 families but contains maybe 30 who are genuinely, actively searching for what you have available right now.
The cost is real
Every day a spot sits unfilled is a day of lost revenue. For a centre enrolled in the CWELCC program, an empty toddler spot can represent $50 to $80 per day in funding and fees that simply evaporates. Over a month, that's $1,000 to $1,600 per spot. If it takes you two or three weeks of phone tag to fill a spot that could have been filled in days, the math adds up quickly.
And it's not just money. It's your time. Directors and administrators already wear too many hats — educator, manager, compliance officer, bookkeeper, comforter of crying toddlers. Spending hours each week chasing down families who aren't looking anymore is time that could be spent on your program, your staff, or yourself.
What if filling a spot took five minutes instead of five weeks?
That's the idea behind TinyMatch. It's a free platform where you can list your actual, current openings — not a general "we exist" profile, but specific spots. Two toddler spots opening in June. One preschool spot available now. That kind of thing.
On the other side, families in your area sign up with what they're looking for — age group, location, timing. When your opening matches what they need, we connect you. No stale data. No ghost chasing. Just families who are actively looking for exactly what you have.
What this means for your centre
You fill spots faster, which means less lost revenue from empty spaces. You spend less time on the phone with families who aren't looking anymore. And you build a direct line to the families in your community who need you right now — not eight months ago.
We're launching in Durham Region first, and we're looking for childcare partners who want to try a better way. There's no cost and no commitment. If you have spots to fill, we want to help you fill them.
A note about who I am
I'm not a tech company trying to disrupt childcare from a downtown Toronto office. I'm a dad in Pickering who couldn't find a spot for my own kid and got frustrated enough to build something about it. I've sat in the same parent chair you see families sit in every day. I know how much your work matters, and I built TinyMatch to make one part of it — filling spots — a little less painful.
If you're a childcare provider in Durham Region and you'd like to learn more, reach out through tinymatch.ca. I'd love to chat — even just to hear about how your waitlist works and what would actually help.