Toronto, March 30, 2007

More than one week after the provincial and federal budgets were tabled, key questions about child care funding remain unanswered. There are growing doubts that the federal and provincial funds will address the need for affordable high quality child care, or even to maintain the child care services currently available. The most significant question is whether federal funds announced for child care will be used to support the Ontario child care system, or instead be used for other programs.

“Communities across Ontario have inadequate child care funding today – with increasing parent fees, cuts to program funding, and uncertainty that existing spaces will remain viable for much longer,” commented Elizabeth Ablett, Executive Director of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. “Federal and provincial dollars announced last week will not make a dent in these problems, let alone address the real need for affordable, high-quality child care.”

The Early Years Study 2, a report published earlier this week, confirms that Canada’s investment in the early years in a child’s life is the lowest among countries surveyed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report also recommended re-instituting the funding earmarked for the federal-provincial early learning and child care agreements signed in 2005 as a first step in the development of a universal early learning and child care system.

This Saturday marks the end of funding under those now-cancelled agreements. Ontario, scheduled to receive $449 million in 2007/8 under those agreements, will instead have to rely on funds remaining from last year’s allocation – totalling $63.5 million – to prop up its Best Start plan. While the recent federal budget allocates $250 million for new child care spaces – approximately $97 million for Ontario – this is less than a quarter of the 2007/8 funding committed to the provinces under the 2005 child care agreements.

Ontario’s provincial budget, also tabled last week, made no mention of Ontario’s share of federal funds, an omission that has raised alarms amongst communities and advocates.

“The province’s reluctance to commit the federal funding for our child care system is unacceptable. ” said Shellie Bird, OCBCC President. “We have asked for a public statement that the $97 million will be spent on child care, in addition to the new provincial funding. This government should expect to hear from parents and the child care community into the fall election.”

The Ontario budget also included provincial child care funding of $25 million this year and $50 million next year – the first provincial support for child care since the Harris government cuts – but this falls $275 million short of the funding promised by Dalton McGuinty in 2003. While new provincial and federal dollars are welcomed, they do very little to rebuild the damage of the past 12 years – including the $152 million dollars cut during the Harris / Eves years.

Currently less than 11% of children under 12 in Ontario have access to high quality, regulated early learning and child care.

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Toronto, March 22, 2007

Parents, staff and advocates are expressing their relief that the Ontario government has finally committed its own funds for early learning and child care in today’s budget.

“It looks like the government is starting to understand how important child care is in the lives of all Ontario families and children, and that a high quality child care system is essential to all families, especially low income families and parents trying to re-enter the workforce,” said Elizabeth Ablett, Executive Director of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. “Although this is a step in the right direction, today’s announcement is a far cry from the $300 million promised almost four years ago.”

In 2003, Dalton McGuinty promised to fund early learning and child care with $300 million in provincial dollars. Since then, despite an escalating crisis in the child care system and repeated calls for that promise to be kept, the provincial government has failed to meet its own commitments. Ontario’s investments in early learning and child care services were slashed under the Harris government. Those cuts were never reversed. Today’s announcement is the first provincial money allocated to child care since those cuts.

Although well below what is needed to build enough affordable, high-quality spaces for the families and children who need them, today’s announcement may provide some relief for child care programs and parents facing the prospect of increasing fees, centre closures and growing waiting lists.

“We will be looking to the province to make further funding commitments in the coming months, and to earmark these dollars for Ontario’s non-profit child care programs,” Ablett continued. “We fully expect that Ontario’s share of the Federal child care funds, announced Monday, will be added to this.”

“The child care community has been waiting for almost four years for provincial child care funding. We hope that today’s announcement is a sign of things to come, and will be watching closely to see just how this plays out on the ground,” commented OCBCC President Shellie Bird. “Child care is a provincial responsibility, and that has to be reflected in its funding of the system.”

Toronto, March 19, 2007

Parents, staff, and child care advocates in Toronto responded with disappointment today to the federal government’s continuing lack of commitment to children and families in its budget. Advocates have been calling for the restoration of the funding for early learning and child care that was cancelled by the Harper government last year.

“The federal government has let families down, again. Instead of showing real political will by reversing the child care cuts made last year, the Harper government is instead relying on its taxable child care allowance and recycling funds from its doomed child care spaces plan,” commented Elizabeth Ablett, Executive Director of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC). “This is a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed to build a real child care system.”

Today’s federal budget confirms that Stephen Harper’s government is moving ahead with its scheme to create child care spaces through tax incentives to businesses and will also be transferring $250 million to the provinces and territories for early learning and child care.

Ontario is expected to receive $97 million of this – representing a cut of $352 million from what it would have received under the now-cancelled child care agreements. Currently less than 11% of children under 12 in Ontario have access to high quality, regulated early learning and child care.

“Giving parents $100 a month has not made child care more affordable for parents, and tax incentives for businesses will not create enough new child care spaces in Ontario or across the country,” said Shellie Bird, OCBCC President. “For children to have access to regulated, non-profit child care, and for their parents to stay in the work force, we need to see a bigger, long-term commitment to child care from this government.”

According to the OECD, Canada spends the least on early learning and child care, compared with 14 industrialized countries. Less than a quarter of a percentage point of Canada’s gross domestic product is put toward early learning and child care, and most of that spending happens in Quebec.

“This is our shame, as Canadians,” concluded Bird. “Why does this government think that children in Canada deserve less than children in Mexico?”

Toronto, March 13, 2007

The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care is very pleased to introduce Andrea Calver as our Government and Communications Director. In addition to her work with policy makers and on communications, she will be taking a lead role in the Coalition’s outreach with communities and advocates, and working to increase the OCBCC’s presence and capacity in this important election year.

Some of you may have met Andrea as she was at the Ontario Coalition for Social Justice from 1997-2001, through the Harris years. Andrea worked with local communities across Ontario on the Days of Action, the World March of Women and the Women: Our Votes Count campaign. Most recently, she worked at UNITE HERE, the hotel workers union, and has valuable organizing experience and contacts with a wide range of communities.

Andrea started on March 1st at our Toronto offices. Please join us in wishing her a warm welcome!

Toronto, March 07, 2007

arents, child care staff, and child care advocates called today for the provincial government to finally come through on its 2003 promise to fund child care.

“We are still waiting,” said Elizabeth Ablett, Executive Director of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. “We’re here today, at the site of the original announcement, to remind the Premier of his pre-election commitment – a promise that Ontario parents and the child care sector have not forgotten.”

The 2003 funding promise, made at Withrow Child Care Centre in Toronto in 2003, gave a ray of hope to parents, child care programs and advocates after severe cuts to provincial child care during the Harris-Eves governments.

Three budgets later, the promised funds have yet to materialize, and child care programs across the province are facing the very real prospect of cuts to services, quality and in some cases, closure.

“Ontario’s child care system doesn’t have enough child care spaces, and the spaces that we do have are not affordable for most families,” said Sue Cumming, a member of the Withrow Child Care Centre parent board. “Here at Withrow Child Care, we made the difficult decision to close our waiting list because we did not want to give parents in the neighbourhood false hope that they would be able to get a space. Meanwhile, other programs are struggling to fill spaces that parents in their communities can’t afford. This is a real crisis.”

Despite this looming crisis, there are no indications as yet that the Liberal provincial government intends to come through on its promise of $300 million for the province’s early learning and child care system in the upcoming spring budget. There have been no new provincial investments in early learning and child care in over ten years.

An infusion of provincial funding dedicated to early learning and child care is urgently needed to address:

● Access and affordability for families and long waiting lists for children
● Sustainability of child care programs, and improving their quality
● A severe shortage of qualified child care professionals, and difficulties in recruitment and retention of staff

Existing early learning and child care programs that were established or recently expanded under Best Start were able to do so because of the federal funding from the federal-provincial child care agreements. The cancellation of that funding, and the continuing lack of new provincial funding, mean that parents will continue to struggle to find affordable, high-quality, non-profit spaces for their children.

“The province’s Best Start plan is failing to address long-standing funding shortfalls – a situation made worse by not providing funding beyond 2010 for the 14,000 new Best Start spaces created with federal dollars. This is creating greater instability and further erosion of quality programs,” said OCBCC President Shellie Bird. “Child care in Ontario is more fragile and unstable than ever mainly because the provincial government has failed to make good on its election promise to put more provincial funding into the system,” said Bird.