Day care operators in Ontario will no longer be allowed to charge parents a fee to put a child on a waiting list as of Sept. 1.

Education Minister Mitzie Hunter says the ban on what she calls unfair fees and deposits will apply to licensed child care centres and home child care agencies.

Hunter says Ontario will be the first province to ban wait list fees for child care.

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Child care providers have until Jan. 1 to develop a public wait list policy that clearly explains how children on the list are offered admission.

They will also have to make the wait list available to families while at the same time protecting the confidentially of their personal information.

Ontario spends over $1 billion a year on child care, and has nearly 351,000 licensed child care spaces.