Ontario announces funding for daycares
Advocates welcome move to help struggling centres stay afloat during closure
The province is providing financial help to keep daycare centres afloat during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Advocates have raised concerns that without relief, some would be forced to close given they are currently prohibited from charging parents any fees under provincial emergency order.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce made the announcement Saturday morning at Queen’s Park, saying the government’s plan is one “that is targeted, that is temporary and that is timely to support child-care operators to ensure they remain sustainable, to ensure your child’s spot” in community daycares.
“We are supporting all childcare operators during the difficulty of this outbreak.”
Carolyn Ferns, of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, called it “a good step that the province is finally acknowledging the difficult financial position facing the child-care sector.”
However, “we need further information to ensure that this plan will really support programs and not simply give with one hand and take with the other,” she added.
One month ago, the province barred centres from continuing to collect fees from parents during the shutdown, and Lecce said it is now “focused on protecting child-care spaces around our province, so families can re-enter the workforce with confidence that local centres will be accessible and safe” when they do ultimately open.
The government will cover the operating costs of child care and EarlyON Centres and says it is cutting red tape to help them access the funds more directly.
It is also urging centres to make use of federal financial help, including wage and rent subsidies, and is waiving license renewal requirements and automatically extending licenses about to expire. Child-care centres were closed March14 as part of larger measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the province has since opened a number of facilities to provide free daycare to help front-line workers — with about 1,500 children on average in these centres each day across Ontario.
Lecce noted that federal programs that partly cover wages and rent, combined with provincial and municipal measures, “will help ensure the sustainability of the sector.”
Lecce said the government is “definitely listening” to calls from advocates to extend the $4-an-hour wage top-up for front-line COVID-19 workers to child-care staff. Saturday’s announcement said provincial wage enhancement grants of $2-an-hour — aimed at boosting chronically low wages in the sector — will continue for those working in the emergency programs.
Sheila Olan-MacLean, executive director of Compass Early Learning and Care in Peterborough, welcomed Lecce’s announcement, calling it “a good plan for us and seems to be suggesting that municipalities continue to use existing (provincial) grants as an emergency fund to keep centres afloat.”
Compass, a non-profit agency that provides child care in the Peterborough-Haliburton and Clarington areas for about 2,500 children in 39 centres and 50 homes, is providing emergency care for about 50 children during the pandemic.
Olan-MacLean said she hoped provincial wage grants for staff not working during the crisis will continue to flow to municipalities and be used to help centres cover their costs while they are closed.
On Saturday, the government also announced measures allowing school board staff who volunteer to be redeployed in other areas to help out in sectors hit hard by COVID-19, including seniors’ homes.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents support staff in most Ontario boards, is fully behind the move said Laura Walton, president of CUPE’s school board council.
With few layoffs during the school shutdown, “many CUPE members (are) available and eager to support vulnerable residents and exhausted colleagues,” Walton said, adding that school custodians in Kenora are already helping to clean local hospitals.
Lecce said other school staff who volunteer, such as school psychologists or social workers, could also be redeployed.
“It’s very inspiring that a lot of people” are helping where needed, he said. “People, in small ways, are making a big difference.”