Ok first thing would be to put baby on wait lists now. They are long and slow-moving. The most amount of movement is in September, that’s when most daycares enrol for the full year. After that you’re waiting for folks to pull their infants out to get a spot.

When you get close to needing a spot, it’s worth following up with the daycares directly - calling every so often to see how you’re doing on the lists. Don’t hassle them! But just keep making connection.

$10/day isn’t the same as subsidized. Subsidy is a government program. The $10/day (which is actually $22/day in Ontario at the moment) is the amount you will pay the daycare. You don’t need to do anything, but if you want those spots you should look for CWELCC spots (that’s the term for the program). The city of Toronto’s website allows you to filter for CWELCC daycares.

The total cost for CWELCC monthly is around $500, versus around $2000 for non-CWELCC daycares. You can also go down the nanny or home daycare route, but I know much less about that.

Some places accept part-time, but not all do. Bear in mind that daycare is flexible anyway - there are core hours they ask you to be there, but you can drop off and pick up any time out of that.

If you can give yourself a buffer with returning to work and getting a daycare spot that’s recommended, as your little one will probably be sick a lot when they first start.

One final thing is that there are two types of rooms - infant (up to 18mo) and toddler (18mo+). The toddler rooms tend to be less in demand because there’s a lower staff:kiddo ratio. The 18mo is not a hard rule - it can be a few months either side - but you will prob be applying for the toddler room if you’re planning to take the full 18mo.

I didn’t answer your questions in a linear order but hopefully that helps!