Parents blast Toronto auditor’s questioning of city-run child care centres

Toronto’s auditor general suggests city’s 52 municipally-run child care centres could be transferred to non-profit sector to free up money for more fee subsidies.

Thestar.com
May 7, 2018
Laurie Monsebraaten

Parents, councillors and early childhood educators say they will fight the city auditor general’s recommendation that Toronto consider handing over its 52 child care centres to non-profit operators.

Mayor John Tory, who is facing re-election in October, also appears reluctant to endorse the idea.

“I’m less interested in having a debate right now about transferring child care centres anywhere,” he said in an interview Monday.

The proposal is among 20 recommendations to improve efficiency in Toronto children’s services to be discussed by the city’s audit committee Friday.

If the city stopped operating child care centres, an extra $28 million would be available to create 2,000 new fee subsidies or boost wages by $2.30 an hour for workers in the rest of the system, says Auditor General Beverly Romeo-Beehler.

“Using non-profit operations instead of city-run operations will make the government pool of subsidy dollars go further,” she says in her 96-page report. “This will also likely result in lower fees at the 52 centres, making it more affordable for full-fee-paying families.”

Fees in city operated centres are between 28 per cent and 45 per cent higher than those in non-profit daycares, largely due to higher city wages and benefits, the report notes.

But critics say the city shouldn’t be increasing subsidies and lowering parent fees at the expense of well-paid early childhood educators in municipal centres. Especially when those centres are among the highest-quality in Toronto and serve some of the most vulnerable children.

“I want people looking after my children to have good wages and job security,” said Toronto mother Tessa Riley, whose three children used a city-run centre until the family moved several years ago.

Workers at the city-run Danforth Early Learning and Child Care were a “lifeline” when Riley had to go back to work when her daughter Pippa was just 5 months old and not yet on a bottle, she said.

“They went above and beyond. They spoon-fed her milk and would lie down with her to get her to go to sleep. I can’t tell you how amazing they are,” Riley said.

The 2,921 spaces in Toronto’s municipally operated centres represent just 3 per cent of the city’s 83,587 licensed spots and set the benchmark for the rest of the sector, said Toronto Councillor Janet Davis, a longtime child care champion.

“I hope the audit committee recognizes the complexity and the depth of the policy behind why we directly deliver child care. And recognizes what a small proportion it is of the entire system,” Davis said.

Davis and others support the auditor general’s suggestions to make the existing system more efficient by streamlining subsidy wait lists and filling vacant spots.

But they don’t want city staff to revisit “alternative service delivery” when a similar probe was done when Rob Ford was mayor.

“Third-party reviews have already been conducted on these child care centres,” said David Mitchell, president of CUPE Local 79, which represents 644 staff working in the municipal centres.

The centres “show their value to the city through superior quality ratings, service to high-needs populations, care for a higher percentage of children with special needs, and for the benchmarks/best practices they set for other child care operators,” he said in a statement.

Families in Toronto’s east end are worried the auditor general’s report will distract the city from opening the new, affordable child care spaces the community desperately needs, said Sara Ehrhardt of parent group Toronto East Enders for Child Care, which plans to address the audit committee on Friday.

“We do not want the city to engage in a debate over worker salaries, which can only lead to widening income disparity in Toronto,” she added.

Municipal centres serve a high percentage of children with special needs and often locate in places where other programs would have difficulty, said Laurel Rothman of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care.

“If anything, we would favour an increase in publicly operated services as is the case for a large part of child care and early childhood education in Western Europe,” she said.

Martha Friendly of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit wondered why the auditor is making these recommendations during a provincial election when two of the three main parties are proposing major changes in the way child care is funded.

“It’s really quite outrageous,” Friendly said. “Child care is a key issue in this election and the city shouldn’t be voting on something like this before it knows what the province is doing.”