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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.