Thursday’s provincial budget must replace lost federal subsidy, critics warn McGuinty
Tue Mar 23 2010
Laurie Monsebraaten Toronto Star
Ontario’s loss of $63.5 million in federal child-care cash next month and the fall launch of all-day
kindergarten for 4- and 5-year-olds are creating the “perfect storm” in the province’s child-care system,
advocates warn.
If Queen’s Park doesn’t replace the federal money in Thursday’s budget, at least 7,600 child-care subsidies
will disappear, fees will rise and parents might not be able to work, they say.
“We are facing a catastrophic collapse of the child-care system in this province,” said Andrea
Calver of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care.
“With the loss of those subsidies, centres will have to lay off staff, parent fees will have to rise and many
programs will be forced to close,” she said Monday.
Premier Dalton McGuinty blamed Ottawa as he faced a grilling on the issue in the Legislature on Monday.
“Will he commit to keeping those child-care spaces open or is he telling mothers and fathers across the
province to quit their jobs and stay home with their kids?” asked New Democratic Party Leader Andrea
Horwath.
McGuinty called on Horwath “to join us in the efforts that we are making to convince the federal
government that they should restore that funding on a permanent basis.”
The federal money is part of $252 million in child-care funds Ontario received from Ottawa in
2006 after the Conservative government cancelled a previous $5 billion national child-care plan. Instead
of spending all the money that year, Ontario spread it over four years to support about 7,600 new childcare
subsidies. The last $63.5 million instalment runs out April 1.
Last summer, Queen’s Park gave municipalities a one-time $18 million grant to keep the subsidies
flowing until the end of the current school year. But without new money, municipalities say they will be
forced to start cutting subsidies this summer.
Meanwhile, officials say up to 48 per cent of Ontario’s child-care centres will lose 4- and
5-year-olds when the first phase of all-day kindergarten rolls out next fall.
Most of those centres have waiting lists for younger children and could use the space to expand. But few
parents can afford full fees of $1,200 monthly or more. And without new subsidies, centres will be
forced to lay off staff or close, putting more spaces at risk.
West End Parents’ Daycare in Toronto’s Dovercourt and College area is already scrambling to make ends
meet, said board member Tessa Sproule, whose 3- year-old son Daya is in the pre-school room.
If Queen’s Park doesn’t throw the system a financial lifeline on Thursday, the centre may have to cut staff
or raise parent fees or both, said Sproule, who is on maternity leave with 4-month-old daughter Shay.
It may mean there will be no place for Shay when Sproule returns to her job in digital TV, she said.
Parent fees went up 7 per cent last year and already were set to increase another 5 per cent this year,
Sproule, 36, added.
She and her husband pay $967 a month for Daya and will pay another $1,200 next year if Shay is lucky
enough to get a spot.
“If fees go up much more, we’ll be looking into a nanny … but I know many families don’t have this
option and I don’t know what they will do.”
In 1992, Ontario was above the national average when it came to child-care services, ranking 5th out
of the 12 provinces and territories in the percentage of children under 6 served in child-care centres, says
the Child Care Resource and Research Unit, which has tracked child care for two decades. By 2008,
Ontario had dropped to 9th place, serving just under
20 per cent.
“Ontario was Canada’s child-care pioneer. But now we’re really falling behind,” said the unit’s Martha
Friendly.
“If these cuts go through, we are looking at further destabilization, loss of subsidies, spaces and centres
that will put us even further behind,” she said.
Every other province has managed the loss of federal funding without cutting services, notes researcher
Kerry McCuaig of Better Child Care Education. And many also invest in all-day kindergarten.
“When the Liberals introduced all-day learning, they promised to reinvest child-care funding for 4- and
5-year-olds back into the system,” she said.
“If they don’t, they will be using child care to pay for their early- learning plan,” she said. “And that’s not
what they told people they were going to do.”