Childcare

 

Affordable, Quality Child Care
and Early Learning

publicpower means Ontario children have safe, quality, affordable care and the best possible start in life.

Terry O'Connor and the NDP would make child care affordable for all Ontario families by reducing fees to $10 a day for children ages 18 months to 5 years.

Conservatives: The Conservatives have cut $90 million from regulated child care.Statistics Canada reports that average household spending on child care has increased 65 per cent since 1997. Ontario families today pay more for child care than families anywhere else in Canada. Centres and regulated child care spaces are closing. Conservative policies are forcing parents to turn to unsupervised care from unqualified caregivers.

Ontarians need affordable, regulated child care. Seventy per cent of Ontario women with children under 12 are in the paid workforce, but only nine per cent of Ontario families are able to access regulated child care.

The Conservatives commissioned Dr. Fraser Mustard and the Honourable Margaret McCain to write the Early Years Study, but promptly shelved it. Under the Conservatives there are fewer junior kindergarten programs, educational assistants have been cut from kindergarten classes, nine full-day senior kindergarten programs in Toronto were cut, family resource programs were downloaded to municipalities. Clearly the Conservatives have no commitment to early learning programs.

Liberals: The Liberal child care voucher is not affordable. They would provide a subsidy voucher that varies according to income, but even families with low incomes would pay between $15 - $35 a day, compared to the $10 NDP plan. For a middle income family earning $75,000 a year, the Liberal voucher would provide $5 a child, meaning the cost would be $25 - $45 a day, compared with $10 a day under the NDP.

The Liberals would promote the growth in private, for-profit care. Private for-profit operators would be eligible for the Liberal vouchers, with little monitoring.

Ontario parents need child care that is universal, accessible and affordable. The Liberal voucher is a meanstested subsidy system - it's the wrong way to go.

The McGuinty Liberals' commitment to full-day junior and senior kindergarten is vague and all "spin" - they refuse to specifically commit to funding full-day JK and SK for all who want it. Similarly, they talk about Family Resource Centres and Early Years Centres but make no specific funding commitments.

The Liberals refuse to fund proxy pay equity and wage enhancements and have no plan to improve quality programming or working conditions for child care workers, among the lowest paid workers in Ontario.

NDP: Terry O'Connor and the NDP know Ontario families work best when affordable child care is readily available. $10 a day child care is a practical solution to provide affordable child care to all who need it. A similar program in Quebec shows that affordable, accessible, regulated child care is not a dream - it can be done.

The NDP's practical solutions for affordable, quality child care and early learning:

• Reduce parental fees to $10 a day for children ages 18 months to 5 years now enrolled in non-profit, regulated child care in home and centre-based settings. No family in Ontario would pay more for child care under the NDP plan - existing subsidies for low income parents would be preserved.
  
  
• Create 20,000 new $10 a day regulated non-profit child care spaces.
  
  
• Support children's services by expanding the existing Family Resource Program network. Family Resource Centres provide drop-in services, counseling, toy lending libraries and other supports for children and families. They are effective, cost-efficient programs for encouraging early learning, good parenting and stronger families.
  
  
• Provide capital funds to repair and expand existing child care centres and build new ones. Full day junior and senior kindergarten for all who want it, phased in over four years, to ensure all children get the best possible start.
  
  
• Create seamless, integrated early learning programs that link child care to school that, in addition to funding full day JK and SK, would require every new school to include a child care centre and include child care centres under the education funding formula.
  
  
• Ensure early childhood educators and child care workers receive a fair wage that truly values their work. Fully fund proxy pay equity for child care staff and additional wage grants for early childhood educators.
  
  
• The NDP practical solutions for affordable, quality child care would be phased in over four years, a major step towards a universal, public child care system that is accessible and affordable for all parents.
  
  
• Invest a significant portion of the federal Early Childhood Development Initiative funding and all the federal funding recently announced for child care into regulated, non-profit care.
  
  
• The NDP balanced budget practical solutions would invest $200 million annually for child care to fund $10 a day child care and phase in 20,000 new spaces.

Average child care fees in Ontario are $30 a day, but in some communities that climbs to $50 a day or at least $12,000 a year for each child in child care. For many families, child care expenses are second only to the cost of housing.

The NDP government expanded non-profit, regulated child care spaces by 18,000, increased child care funding by 62 per cent, and extended junior kindergarten to all Ontario school boards.

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