“Child-care programs in Manitoba got a big boost Wednesday with an $11.4 million funding announcement by the province.

The government said it plans to spend the money on everything from new child-care sites and spaces to wage increases for workers.

‘Child care is a critical piece of the puzzle for many Manitobans these days. More and more families are trying to make ends meet in a difficult economic environment.’
—Gord Mackintosh, family services and housing ministerThe funds will create 19 new child-care facilities, revitalize and expand several existing ones, and add 2,850 more spaces, said Family Services and Housing Minister Gord Mackintosh.

As well, the province intends to launch an ad campaign and hire more workers, develop a curriculum framework, and enhance child safety at the facilities, according to a news release issued Wednesday.”

To read the full story, please click here.

From Mix 97 Radio in Belleville, Local News Summary

“A Belleville councillor says the province must maintain child care funding to bridge the 63-million dollar a year gap left by Ottawa’s pullout.

The province recently announced the bridge-funding for the years 2010 to 2011. Councillor Garnet Thompson told City Council this week that the cost would be “astronomical” for municipalities if this funding is dropped. He says M-P-Ps should be urged to keep the money flowing. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario says thousands of child spaces will be lost, and parents unable to go to work, if the funding is not maintained.”

A recent study said Alberta’s primarily for-profit child care system is better than the primarily not for profit systems in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Noted child care researcher Susan Prentice produced a fact sheet on the study pointing out that Alberta has higher costs for child care and lower access for low income families. In addition, she notes complaints about quality in Alberta and recent shocking information from Alberta’s Ombudsman noting 90% of complaints about quality were in the commercial sector. 

To read the two page report, please click here.

From the Toronto Star Editorial, to read the full editorial, please click here.

“The provincial government has come through with $18 million to save 8,500 daycare spaces that were about to close because of expiring federal funding. That is good news.

But as welcome as Tuesday’s announcement is, the problem has not been solved. The provincial funding is only a reprieve, not a long term solution. And it just maintains the existing number of affordable child care spaces when what is needed is a dramatic expansion, with 15,000 families in Toronto alone on the wait list.

On these bigger issues Ontario’s answer remains disappointingly the same: “We continue to call on the federal government to restore funding for child care in Ontario.” » Continue reading “Toronto Star Editorial: Daycare buckpassing”

To read the full article, please click here.

Kathryn O’Hagan-Todd, Niagara Region’s director of children’s services, welcomed the extra money, but said it might not be enough to sustain all of the 580 new subsidized spots created since 2006.

“It’s really only a short-term fix,” said O’Hagan-Todd, whose department oversees child-care subsidies and runs several day cares.

“It still requires us to deal with a significant shortfall. » Continue reading “St. Catharines Standard: Funding for subsidized day-care spots ‘short-term fix’”

NEWS

    Ontario is providing stability for families with kids in child care by investing an additional $18 million in 2010-11 to support 8,500 child care
spaces.
    In 2006, the federal government provided a one-time payment of $254 million to Ontario after cancelling the federal-provincial child care
agreements. The province has used that funding to sustain about 8,500 child care spaces over the last four years. That funding ends next year.
    The new provincial investment will help municipalities plan and maintain child care spaces throughout the next school year and into the summer. This
funding will provide stability in the child care sector while the province continues to press the federal government to restore full funding for child
care.

To read the full release, please click here.

“It is a really good sign that the province has seen the urgency of the issue,” said Andrea Calver of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, which organized today’s Queen’s Park lobby. “If the money forestalls cuts, that’s an excellent sign. But there is still work to be done.”

Municipalities, which administer child-care funding for Queen’s Park, are also relieved because it means programs will be secure for another 18 months while the province considers the introduction of all-day learning for 4- and 5-year-olds in September 2010.

“It gives us a reprieve,” said Nancy Matthews, general manager of children’s services for Toronto, where about 2,000 subsidized spaces were at risk and where more than 15,000 children are waiting for subsidized spots. “This goes some way to maintain some stability in the system.”

To read the full story, please click here.

May 12, 2009

QUEEN’S PARK – NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the McGuinty government’s bridge funding for Ontario’s under-funded child care programs is welcome, but falls short of fulfilling a longstanding McGuinty government promise.

“The $18-million announced today to stop child care spaces from disappearing should be seen as an overdue down-payment on Premier McGuinty’s six-year-old promise to invest $300-million on child care expansion,” said Horwath.

Horwath said the McGuinty government’s chronic lack of substantial investment is largely to blame for the child care crisis that has left 23,000 Ontario children without access to a licensed child care space.  Today’s government announcement won’t create a single new space, she added. » Continue reading “Andrea Horwath: McGuinty’s memory missing on child care promise”

To read the full story, please click here.

The Ontario government is stepping in to head off a crisis in child care.

Earlier this year, municipalities said they were poised to cut anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 subsidized daycare spaces across the province — 6,000 in Toronto alone — because of an end to a federal funding program.

…

For Ruby Malobago, who has two children at the Red Apple Day Care Centre in Toronto’s Flemingdon Park and a third on the waiting list, it’s good news.

She was worried she would lose those subsidized spaces and “have no other choice but to go on assistance.”

Without the daycare support, Malobago says she and many like her would be left with “three children, no daycare and no work probably. I need daycare to go to work.” » Continue reading “CBC News: Province will provide stop-gap funding for threatened daycare spaces”

In Ontario, the Federal and Provincial governments provide most of the funding for early learning and child care. 47 municipal and regional governments (with a small cost shared contribution deliver early learning and child care.

The Association of Ontario Municipalities (AMO) represent those municipal and regional governments. Without a guarantee of continued funding, municipalities warned the government they would have to cut child care subsidies.

On May 12 at the OCBCC Queen’s Park lobby, Minister Deb Matthews announced “bridge funding” of $18 million dollars. The announcement was welcomed by AMO who called for the Federal Government to continue the essential funding that allows low income families to have child care so they can continue to work. To read the AMO statement, please click here.