Bowing to pressure from the community, the Ford government has reversed planned cuts for child care for this year. The cuts are on hold and we need to keep advocating to protect child care services for next year and beyond.

You made a difference!

File this under Advocacy Works! On Ontario Budget Day on April 11, 2019, child care was facing:

• A cut of $40 million in operating funding compared to the previous year;
• A cut of $80 million in total funding;
• No commitment to wage enhancement funding.

Thanks to tireless campaigning by members and allies like you, we succeeding in pushing back against these cuts. Today the province released revised funding details, and child care is receiving:

• +$2,928,624 in operating funding compared to the previous year;
• +$20,436,794 additional total child care funding;
• Continuation of the wage enhancement, including an increase in the wage cap to $27.47.

This shows just how effective our coalition is. We have momentum, but our work is far from over!

Time to Double Down on our Campaigning

The Ford government has warned that cuts have only been put on hold and that they are “working on a new child care plan”.  They have already made troubling changes to safety regulations and opened up more funding to big box for-profits.  

We need to meet these new challenges with our strongest campaign yet! Every MPP needs to hear exactly how important child care programs are to their local constituents and their local economies. Every cabinet minister needs to know that there is no room to cut when it comes to child care.

If you want to get involved in our local campaigning this summer email: [email protected]

If you can help us with the costs of printing toolkits and flyers, providing training sessions for volunteers and doing outreach, please make a donation. Even a few dollars makes a big difference!

At an announcement on Monday May 27th, Premier Doug Ford and Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark walked back planned cuts to municipal transfers in three areas: child care, ambulance services and public health. The announcement specified that this year's funding would go back to "pre-budget levels". We have put in a request to the Ministry of Education for new details of this year's child care allocations given yesterday's announcement. 

This is a major win for our campaign to stop the cuts to child care funding and protect child care services. It is clear that OCBCC's work - and that of our members and supporters - is making a difference.

Our press conference with parents and educators brought over 50 supporters to Queen's Park; over 2000 supporters sent messages to their MPP via our website; more than 40 programs participated in our Day of Action last week right across the province. 

If you took action as part of our campaign, thank you! You made a difference.

While we are celebrating our victory and the work of our community, we also know that the fight is far from over. While the cuts have been put on hold for this year, the government is still planning on cutting funding, but is giving communities more time and a promise of consultation. The Ford government has is also making changes to ratios and has opened the door to more big box for-profit expansion.

We need to keep up the pressure to explain to the government just how important child care services to local children, families, communities and the economy. We need to keep pushing for affordable fees, decent work and wages, and more public and non-profit services.

You can also send a new message to your MPP voicing your support for continued child care funding and calling for action on our 3 Big Ideas for Child Care.