The Child Care Human Resources Sector Council (CCHRSC) is working to update the Occupational Standards for Child Care Practitioners, created by the Canadian Child Care Federation in 2003. Since the standards were first established, the sector has evolved and several areas have become increasingly prominent. As a result, there is a need to update the existing standards to:

- ensure that they are current;
- ensure that they accurately reflect the full scope of the early childhood educator role; and
- identify any areas that are specialized or distinct and may require a separate set of standards.

In order to better understand the evolving scope of the occupation, the CCHRSC is conducting a sector-wide survey designed to gather your thoughts on special needs, cultural and social inclusion, school-age care, infant care and family child care and whether the skills, knowledge and abilities required to work in these areas are part of the core occupation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) or are specialized and have different requirements. The results of the survey will contribute to defining the scope of standards, which will be available in Spring 2010.

Fill out the survey by April 30, 2009 at the survey link:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=s05y_2fgHYTgCEV2O42nYcww_3d_3d

The Ministry of Health knows that to have health care you need hospitals.

The Ministry of Education knows that to have education you need schools.

Treasure Island Day Care, currently located in the OPP Headquarters in Orillia, was asked to move. After a long campaign by the centre’s spirited Executive Director, Lucille Desjardins, the centre secured special funding to move.  It is incredible that there is no regular funding through the Ministry of Children and Youth Services for capital funding. That lack of funding put parents and children in Orillia at risk of losing quality child care if Treasure Island closed.

No sooner had the crisis for Treasure Island been solved that the Orillia Central Preschool learned that they too must find another location for their child care centre.

The Orillia Central Preschool has been leasing 6,000 sq ft. of space from the Simcoe County District School Board for the past 24 years at the Orillia Central School. Every child care centre’s worst nightmare is to face the possibility of relocation. The Preschool is home to 75 children, with 125 families on a waiting list.

Isn’t it time that established child care centres had access to capital funding in the event they have to move or renovate?

Materials for the campaign can be found at www.childcarontario.org/stopthecuts

May / June
Constituency Lobby  – meetings with local politicians across Ontario
We will be doing a local constituency lobby in ridings throughout the province. Join with early learning and child care supporters in a meeting with your local MPP to explain how important early learning and child care programs are for children, parents and our community. 

This is the most important part of our campaign. Cuts to early learning and child care have real consequences for every community.

We need to talk to our local members of provincial parliament. They need to hear our stories. They need to hear that we need more child care, not less. We need more funding, not cuts.

A meeting request letter and lobby kit is on the website. We can help you find allies in the community to meet your local MPP.  Join Us, Get Involved, Now is the Time!
 
May 12, 2009
Queen’s Park Lobby – meetings with the Minister, Critics and MPP’s from all parties
On May 12, the Minister of Children and Youth Services and opposition critics will address our questions from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Queen’s Park, Main Legislative Building, Room 230. We have invited each MPP at Queen’s Park to meet with us on that day. If you are available in the morning or for any block of time during the day, you are welcome to join us at Queen’s Park. 

May – September
Parent Voices
Personal stories make the difference. We are committed to providing training and support for parents in telling their personal story. Do you know someone with a story to tell? Do you have a story to tell?

September / October
Community Meetings

Cuts to early learning and child care have consequences. Join us this fall as we look at the local impacts – for children, families and communities.

www.waitingforchildcare.ca
With just a postal code, send a message to your local politicians. Tell them you are having trouble finding child care, paying for child care or a child care supporter. It’s easy and it’s effective.

A special council meeting in March planned priorities for the next year for the OCBCC.

For many years, the OCBCC has had various grants and projects. Today, we have diversified funding through membership, sales of publications and donations.

Some years, we have had three staff, our current budget has capacity for two staff. We were sad to lose long time staff Sue Parker, who took a job with the AECEO. Jenny Robinson left for another position.

Andrea Calver remains in a new position of Coordinator and we will be hiring a “Campaigns and Administration Assistant” soon.

We’ve agreed to focus our work in the following key areas:

• Continue our critical work monitoring the Provincial and Federal Budgets.

• Participate in pre-budget activities and reaction to the budget, especially this year given the lack of funding to child care and child care cuts.

• Engage our members, our allies and front line staff in advocacy.

• Maintain our critical relationships with other groups in Ontario and across the Country.

• Focus on our www.waitingforchildcare.ca campaign to raise the profile of early learning and child care among MPP’s and at Queen’s Park.

• Monitor on-going provincial issues, like the report on full-day learning.

• Expand our media presence to more community and ethnic media.

• Continue to provide information on best practices through the Child Care Management Guide and our new “Smart Treasurer E-Learning Tool”

 This work represents critical advocacy for early learning and child care programs.

Over the next year we will look at our Governance Structure as we have a very large Executive and Council. We need to get more people involved – as community contacts, reporting to supervisor network meetings and through women’s committees.

Parents and child care advocates were stunned to see the lack of funding in the March 26 Provincial Budget.

The OCBCC argued for more funding to expand affordable child care and increase wages of child care staff. There was NO new funding for child care in the March budget.

The budget did not include $63.5 million dollars in expiring federal funds. Without funding in this year’s provincial budget, municipalities told the Province that they would be forced to cut child care subsidies. The City of Toronto  and other municipalities estimate that thousands of child care subsidies could be cut.  The lack of funding puts thousands of child care subsides and thousands of jobs in jeopardy.

The chronic lack of investment in early learning and child care has brought us to yet another crisis. In early learning and child care funding, we have been here before. Over and over again, we have worked with parents to stop child care cuts. Over and over again we have educated politicians on how important early learning and child care services are to our communities, to parents and to children.

We must educate politicans about the consequences of cuts in our communities. Join us in our province-wide constituency lobby. Contact us for a lobby kit to prepare you to meet with your local member of the provincial parliament. We can also put you in touch with other advocates in your community.

The lack of attention paid to early learning and child care makes our website – www.waitingforchildcare.ca even more important.  Local politicians need to know this is an issue in their community. Only then will early learning and child care be a higher priority at Queen’s Park.

On April 30th 2009 in Halifax,   Canada’s largest for-profit Childcare provider,  Kids and Company held an open house. Much to the dismay of CUPE and other opponents of this “Big Box” Daycare.

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA–(Marketwire – April 29, 2009) – Opponents of so-called ‘big box’ daycare will be on hand as Canada’s largest for-profit childcare provider, Kids and Company, holds an open house at its new Halifax facility.

The event will take place at 4:00 pm on Thursday, April 30 at 3260 Barrington Street (between Richmond and Hanover).

Big Box Child Care is one of the greatest fears of Early Childhood Educators (ECE’s). CUPE has helped to campaign against it by inviting keynote speakers from Australia to tour Canada and speak out against it.

Australia is where Canadian-born Eddie Groves built the largest private child care empire in the world. His company, ABC Learning, has since had to declare bankruptcy.

Kids and Company has about two dozen centres, mostly in Ontario and Alberta, and plans to open up three centres in Halifax. Their fees can be as high as $900 a month.

The Canadian Federation of University Women is one of Canada’s foremost child care advocacy groups.

“t this time, the Canadian Federation of University Women of Hamilton has a serious concern regarding the current state of early childhood learning and child care in Hamilton and across the province.” To read the full article, please click here.

On May 12 at our 2009 Early Learning and Child Care Lobby, Minster Matthews announced 18 million in funding to stabilize child care. We met with 36 MPP at Queen’s Park. Early learning and child care IS on the agenda and we will keep our momentum growing.

Join us in meeting with your local MPP to talk about the urgent need for more affordable child care – Materials available soon!

Here is our plan:
MAY/ JUNE Constituency Lobby  – meetings with local politicians across Ontario
We must reach out to the politicians who fund child care  – all across Ontario we must schedule meetings with our local MPP’s to explain to them how early learning and child care . Join Us! We can help your find other child care advocates, parents and partner groups who can come with you to meet with your local MPP.

Available Materials:
Sample Letter Requesting a Meeting,  Lobby Kit (coming soon); Common Questions and Answers (coming soon); Meeting Report Back Form (coming soon)

MAY 12 – Queen’s Park Lobby – meetings with the Minister, Critics and MPP’s from all parties
2009 Queen’s Park Lobby, Tuesday May 12, Committee Room 230, Queen’s Park To confirm your attendance, send a message to: andrea@childcareontario.org

Schedule
• 8:30 a.m. Minister of Children and Youth Services Deb Matthews
• Minister Of Education Kathleen Wynne
• Parliamentary Assistant, Ministry of Children and Youth Services Maria Van Bommel

9 a.m. NDP Leader and Critic for Children and Youth Services Andrea Horwath

9:30 a.m. PC Party, Invited

9:30 to 4:00 p.m. meetings with individual MPP’s at Queen’s Park. 

Parent Voices
To politicians, to the media, to our communities, we need to tell our personal stories about how important child care is for children, families and our communities. We will win more affordable child care when we convince people with statistics AND our personal stories. We are committed to providing training and support for parents in telling their personal story. Know someone with a good story? How about you?

SEPTEMBER – Community Meetings
Early learning and child care cuts have real consequences. Devastating for children. Disruptive for families. Damaging for communities. Our community forums will examine the costs of the cuts.