Child care advocates applaud unexpected $20M funding boost

Thestar.com
June 13, 2019
Laurie Monsebraaten

Ontario parents and advocates are celebrating a modest $20 million increase in provincial child care funding this year after the embattled Ford government put budget cuts on hold last month.

“This shows advocacy works,” said Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition For Better Child Care. “But we can’t let up.”

The slight funding bump was included in revised child care allocations to municipalities released this week. It comes in the wake of Premier Doug Ford’s decision in May to reverse budget cuts to municipalities for public health, child care and ambulatory services. And it brings provincial funding for licensed child care to almost $1.7 billion.

“We were looking at a minimum of $80 million in cuts compared to 2018 and no commitment to wage enhancement grants,” Ferns said in an interview. “And that was before changes to cost-sharing and other policies.”

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Lisa Thompson said the $20 million funding increase is related to a number of factors including fee subsidies and wage grants. For example, child care workers will be eligible for the $2-an-hour wage enhancement grant until they hit $27.47 an hour. That is up from $27.04 an hour last year.

“In our recent budget, we committed to spending more on child care than any government in Ontario’s history,” said Stephanie Rea. “And we are committing up to $1 billion over the next five years to create up to 30,000 new child care spaces.”

But the province has warned cost-sharing and administrative cuts have only been delayed and are set to take effect Jan. 1, 2020. And that means the fight is not over, Ferns added.

New mother Tracy Morris, 32, who attended a Queen’s Park news conference last week to decry the cuts, was cautiously optimistic about the additional money for licensed child care this year.

“You don’t really realize the mess child care is in until you are in the thick of it,” said the Toronto dietitian who is on maternity leave with her first child.

Morris, 32, and her husband, a paramedic, have been scrambling to find licensed child care and bracing for monthly fees of almost $2,000 a month for a toddler space.
“It’s good there is an increase. And it’s a big win for the coalition and for parents,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “But a lot of the cuts seem to be on hold, and as a parent, I’m not sure what this means for us moving forward.”

Morris, who works full-time and is studying part-time for her master’s degree in public health, said it is important for parents to continue to speak out.

“Becoming a parent brings a lot of new stress and anxiety,” she said. “Child care should not be one of those extra stresses.”

Before Ford reversed the cuts and policy changes, Toronto staff estimated $84.8 million in city child care funding was on the chopping block, including more than 6,000 child care fee subsidies.

But, instead, this week’s revised provincial funding shows Toronto will be receiving an increase of $345,771 over last year, for a total of $461 million for child care.

City staff are reviewing the funding document and will report to council’s economic development committee on June 26, a spokeswoman said.

“As is standard practice, we will defer comment until after committee and council have had an opportunity to review the findings of the report,” Aggie Fortier said in an email.

Although child care funding may be safe for 2019, other troubling policy changes are going ahead, such as the reduction of safety standards in home daycares and new funding for commercial operators.

A city report last month criticized regulations set to come into force July 1 that will allow a home daycare operator to care for three children under age 2 instead of the current limit of just two.

“Children under the age of 2 may not be walking or be able to follow instructions,” said the report by city manager Chris Murray. “In emergency situations where the need to evacuate is urgent, any adult would struggle to manage three very young children, plus up to three older children.”

The safety concern is partially mitigated in licensed home daycares because they are required to practise emergency planning and have written fire evacuation procedures, he noted.

“However, the risk is unacceptably higher in unlicensed settings,” where there is little oversight and no requirements for emergency planning or caregiver training, he said.

“In Ontario, this lack of oversight contributes to the fact that most child care deaths already occur in the unlicensed sector,” he said. “Allowing more very young children in these environments increases the risk to every child in these homes.”

Rea said the change is designed to make it easier for home daycares to serve parents and children and to provide more affordable child care options for families.

Unlicensed providers are required to notify parents in writing that they are unlicensed, must operate in one location only, and must report any imminent threat to the health, safety or welfare of any child in their care, she said.

Unlicensed providers are also subject to government inspections if there is a complaint, Rea added.