UPDATE: Following sending this letter, it was confirmed to the OCBCC that the wage grant will continue to for 2019-20. Funding for licensed child care will remain at $1.7Billion (the same as 2018-19), with an addition $390 Million being spent on the CARE Tax Credit. As of April 24, 2019, we are still waiting for release of a full breakdown of allocations.
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April 12, 2019
Shannon Fuller, Assistant Deputy Minister
Early Years and Child Care Division, Ministry of Education
Shannon Fuller:
I am following up on yesterday’s provincial budget, which has left our members with more questions than answers on several child care issues. Yesterday in the budget lock-up, the government official in charge of answering stakeholders’ questions encouraged me and others to send our questions to the Ministry of Education directly as he had no further information. So I’m hoping that you and your team will be able to help provide me with some clear answers on three questions:
- The budget only provided an amount for total education spending. There was no clarity about the status of the licensed child care budget. Can you provide any kind of breakdown on licensed child care funding?
- Can you please provide an immediate update on the status of the Wage Enhancement Grant? Funds were only confirmed until March 31st, 2019. Operators and educators have been left in limbo on this issue for months now. Yesterday in the lock-up I was told that I should follow up immediately to seek information; I am doing that now.
- The budget speech mentioned the creation of 30,000 child care spaces in schools at a cost of $1 Billion. It also stated that these spaces could now be operated on a for-profit basis. Can you please clarify: does this mean that for-profit operators can now access capital funding? If so, this is a major policy change – as for-profit child care has never had access to capital funding in Ontario before.
Thank you for your timely attention to these questions.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Ferns, Public Policy Coordinator, Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care