The Toronto Star
No one at Queen’s Park is keeping track of how often babies die in unregulated child care in Ontario. Four children have died in the past seven months in unregulated home child care in the GTA, however neither the provincial coroner’s office nor the provincial Education ministry could say if this is unusual.
In three out of the four cases, the coroner is still investigating the cause of death. The police have charged one caregiver with manslaughter from a case in 2013 but the cause of death is unknown due to investigative reasons.
The coroner’s office investigates all child deaths that are not due to natural causes but the reports have no specific coding that allows the office to track how often a child dies in child care says Dr. Roger Skinner, regional supervising coroner for the Toronto West region.
Andrea Calver of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care supports the proposed child care legislation. But believes the province must spend more money on licensed care.
“It’s really about the budget,” she said. “The problem of unlicensed child care can’t be solved without a massive investment in more licensed, affordable child care so that parents really have some choice and children really have some quality.”