Sample letter to MPP or to your local community newspaper
[Your address / Date]
Dear MPP –
As a parent I was really concerned to learn that thousands of child care subsidies, and the stability of our entire child care system is at risk if the Ontario Government does not include funding for child care in its next budget. Cuts to child care subsidies could begin as soon as this July. This hits low income parents hardest who can’t work or look for work without affordable secure child care for their children.
But all parents with children in regulated child cares could be affected – the loss of subsidized spaces will mean child care centres will have empty spaces they can’t fill. Then they would have to lay off staff and increase parent fees. Many child care centres would close within months. We need the Ontario government to promise now to invest the funds needed to save subsidized child care spaces across the province.
Yours sincerely,
[your name]
cc. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, dduncan.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Because of the ability for me to have subsidized child care I have been able to persue post-secondary education. Without this opportunity me and my children would have remained on the margins of society, occasionally needing help from programs such as social assisstance and food banks. Child care is imperative for our growing society to educate children and help them learn essential socialization skills as well as to better our workforce and allow parents to make the money they need for a sustained economy and a better quality of life.
As a single parent I would not be able to provide for my child without a safe, secure and stable childcare centre. They are lifesavers and necessary. Many of my friends still have their children on the waiting list for subsidy and have had to delay retuning to work or school due to the lack of funding in the system. Sad that the parents who want to give their children better than what they had are being denied the opportunity because the funding is going to other non-essential programs.
As an parent i can understand how difficult to sustain the family with one income source which is always have some or other fear of loosing the continuity of having that income. To support and nurture the kids to become the responsible child it is very important for having second income by having both parents to work. But if the child care subsidy will be stopped than this going to affect the numerous family as one parent need to stay home and take care of kids which means less income to support and hence would affect the overall growth of the young kid and hence we would be depriving the new generation from the better life and will ultimate ruin the future for the country.
Hence in order to protect our future generation it is od paramount importance that the child subsidy will continue and give families a support to better development of there kids.
Dear MPP,
I am writing to ask you to seriously consider not cutting the 5000 child care subsidies by 2012. As a registered Early Childhood Educator for over 22 years, I see how quality child care supports our families who needs to go to school or work.
With the lost of these crucial spaces, parents will not have access to child care spaces and will not be able to work or go to school.
Please seriously considered the children who is our future. We need to provide a quality program and environment for them to learn and grow safely.
Thank you.
I am a grandparent and a former kindergarten teacher.I know how important good childcare and early learning is in todays mixed community.Please continue to support our next generation of learners.
Dear MPP:
I am a registered E.C.E and love everything about the childcare field. What I love most is that we are able to allow ALL children, regardless of economic status have an opportunity to grow and develop within our fantastic programs. This is due to the subsidies. Without this money children would be left without our childcare.
I would like to take this time to express how deeply concerned I am for the possible HUGE cut-backs to child care funding. Early learning and care programs are keeping our children in safe and happy environments. These children are able to develop skills based on these programs. Whether childrens’ families are working or going to school, these families RELY on childcare funding. Children and their families should NEVER be turned away from the types of services and care that ALL of our childcare programs offer. By making these cuts to subsidies you are doing just that..you are denying these families the right to safe, adequate and high quality care. These families need funding and childcare in order to give our children of the future the BEST life possible. Please, please please do not break our little ones hearts. Children need our care and our love that we put into these programs everyday.
Thank you for your time,
Keri Atkinson
Sault Ste Marie
Dear Mpp:
As the Director of a childcare center we will be affected with regards to the all day learning (kindergarden) program. Our home school is one that the province has chosen to be first on their list. We will lose our preschool room and the siblings that remain in our center will have parents having issues dropping off and picking up their children at two different sites. The cutbacks will leave me no choice but to lay off 2 staff if funding is not available to create options for another age group. I strongly recommend that the province find ways to support childcare and the many famalies that rely on childcare in order for them to go to work /school to provide for their famaily.
June Schappert
Dear MPP,
I am a single mother, and have stated many times to my friends and family just how blessed I have been to have had my daughter in Canada. After my maternity leave expired, I found that I was unable to return to my former place of work, due to the hours of my position, and the lack of any sort of affordable daycare in the evenings. And so, I turned to Ontario Works assistance. Thank God it was there for me and my daughter, but it was barely enough to live on, and quite frankly, it killed me to not be earning my own living, when I am quite willing and able to support myself and daughter, and have been raised with far too much pride to just sit back and let someone else pay my way. Although I was very grateful for that safety-net, I made it my mission to get my child into a subsidized daycare, and begin working in August of 2009. Again, I was very aware of how lucky I was to live in a province/country, that would provide that help to people who are trying desparately to support themselves! I am bringing in enough money now for us both to live on, and have already applied to attend College in the fall of 2010… the goal being that within only a few years, I will be able to be out of “the system” completely, and begin paying for my own childcare, and hopefully not have to rely on the Government’s assistance again! It is crucial to me that I raise my daughter with this sense of work-ethic, and responsibility, and I hope one day she will be proud of my efforts to be a self-sufficient, productive member of our city. With the help of the Ontario Government, I have felt that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.
Now, I am absolutely terrified that I am about to watch that light go out. If I have nowhere to bring my daughter every day, so that I can work, and later, attend school, I will absolutely be forced to ask for Social Assistance again, and that will be it for me. Indefinitely. I truly do not understand how this will not cost the city more money in the long run?? A private sitter starts at $10/hour, and I have no family nearby, to help. I am not especially young, so it is incredibly important to me that I get myself through school, and into the career-world, as soon as possible, and only because of subsidized daycare, has this seemeed attainable.
I would have liked very much to be at the Deputations today or tomorrow, but my daughter has caught the flu, and of course, I have no one to leave her with in the evening, as I work all day. I hope this letter finds you, before it is too late, and that you will consider what I’ve said, and just how drastically, and absolutely this will affect my, and so many single mothers’ lives!
Thank you for your time,
Sincerely,
Jennifer