York Region should have more licensed child care spaces in the coming five years

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 28, 2016
By Teresa Latchford

York Region needs more licensed daycare spaces and a local politician is willing to fight for them.

Newmarket and Aurora are two of the fastest growing communities in the province and with more young families moving in, it only makes sense for York Region to get a large chunk of the 100,000 new daycare spaces the province has committed to creating over the next five years, according to Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard.

He reiterated the province’s intentions of adding the licensed spaces at Newpark Children’s Centre in Aurora.

“Our government is investing in families by creating a modern child care and early years system,” he said. “Adding more child care spaces in Newmarket and Aurora is an investment in our children and an important step toward improving access to high-quality, licensed child care for all families.”

Currently there are only enough spaces to accommodate 20 per cent of Ontario children, with this addition, there will be enough to accommodate 40 per cent.

The funding will be coming from the province’s education ministry who is currently in consultation with a number of stakeholders to determine how many spaces will be allocated to each area over the next five years.

While the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care welcomes the announcement that will accommodate children 0 to 4 years of age, public policy manager Carolyn Ferns said it doesn’t go far enough and that there is still more work to be done.

“While today’s commitment is substantial, to make the most of it there needs to be a plan to address affordability for parents,” she added.

The coalition currently has a petition to the Ontario legislature calling for the government to undertake a transparent policy process with the goal of developing a universal early childhood education and child care system allowing all families to access quality child care programs and to lead the way to a national plan.

Ballard admits that this is just the first step in creating capacity and affordability will be the next topic of discussion at the provincial level.

For more about the petition, visit childcareontario.org.