Child-care centres can reopen Friday
Reluctant parents won’t lose spots or be charged fees, minister says
TORONTO—Child-care centres in Ontario will be allowed to reopen Friday with a long list of restrictions in place, including on the number of people per room, extra cleaning and COVID-19 screening measures.
Supports need to be in place so people can return to work, as much of the province enters Stage 2 of reopening on Friday, Premier Doug Ford said.
“In this unprecedented time all parents and guardians have had the increased challenge of balancing work and family in this new normal,” he said. “It is no easy task in normal days, but now more than ever I know it’s even tougher.”
The reopening announcement applies across the province, even though many areas — such as the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and some regions that border the United States — do not yet have the green light to enter Stage 2.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce said he knows not all parents will send their kids back to child care at this time, so the province is extending an order that they won’t lose their spot or be charged fees.
Erin Teichman said she will not be sending her 15-monthold daughter back yet.
“I understand the rationale to open child care because I’m one of those people who can’t go back to work until I get child care, but I think it’s too early,” she said.
“Child care is very touchy feely kind of thing, so if you can’t go somewhere and have someone cut your hair, how am I supposed to feel safe having somebody else comfort my kid, pick them up, give them a hug? They’re toddlers, they need help falling asleep, they need help eating — don’t even get started on going to the bath- room.”
Lecce acknowledged that with Friday just three days away, many centres may not be able to reopen that quickly.
“I appreciate some operators will want to take the time to do the proper training to open up and that may take them some days and we respect that,” he said.
Danielle Miley, whose daughter turns two on Monday, said she was “shocked” that childcare centres in Toronto will open at the same time as the rest of the province, and that the announcement came with so little notice.
“I also was surprised that they gave restaurants outside Toronto more (time) than they gave child-care centres to reopen,” she said.
“I’m not entirely comfortable with necessarily sending her back yet, but at the same time, my husband and I both work full time, so we need it.”
Amy O’Neill, who operates Treetop Children’s Centre in Toronto, said there was no no- tice to the sector.
“I’m in complete shock and disbelief,” O’Neill said.
Operators will be required to limit the number of kids and staff in a defined space to 10 people, and existing legal requirements for ratios of children to staff will remain in place.
O’Neill said she had been fielding calls all afternoon from parents wondering how she would decide which families get the spaces.
“It’s not up to individual operators to prioritize space, that’s a public policy decision that has to come from the government,” she said. “I can’t in all good faith pick and choose who comes back to my centre ... It can’t be put on the backs of operators to scramble on three days’ notice on who can return and who cannot.”