The Sudbury Star
The city is looking for a not-for-profit organization - which is allowed to generate a surplus but usually reinvests it in the agency - to run the municipally owned Junior Citizens Day Care, which operates 110 licence spaces. Last year, the Ministry of Education changed how it funds child care, leaving the city with a $1.8-million funding reduction in 2013 and likely facing $3.6 million more in cuts by 2016. They discovered that the city was spending $94 a day on Junior Citizens spots, while the average in other community centres was $43. Why it took a ministry cutback and a review to discover this is puzzling, but it cannot be allowed to continue. Much of the extra costs in these facilities are salaries. It generally costs more to run a facility with city staff than it does in the marketplace. If the decision to go not-for-profit on day care is a turning point for the city, it’s a sign that taxpayers’ interests are becoming the priority.