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The Orillia Packet & Times, The Globe and Mail, and the Hamilton Spectator respond to the Ontario Provincial Government's announcement of Additional Fee Subsidies and Capital funding.

Orillia Packet & Times: "Child-care centres get $12M"

Lucille Desjardins of the West Ridge Early Education Centre reflects on the need for transition funding to help centres adapt to  shifts in age groups as a result of the full day learning program.

"If I'm going to lose my four-and five-year-olds over the next five years, then I'm going to need new equipment to lower the age group," she said.

The centre has enough room for 10 infants. However, there's a wait list of about 50, and Desjardins wants to see some additional funding to expand the program to meet the need.

Positive about the move to the Ministry of education, Dejardin says:

"Early education is still education. Maybe we will shift the minds of people who think child care should not be funded."

For the full article please click here.

The Globe and Mail: "Province will help fund daycare transition as full-day learning rolls out"

Province announces capital funding to assist existing child car programs:

millions of dollars will go toward helping daycares cope with a shrinking base of clientele. A little over $5-million in operating subsidies will be dispersed to daycares next year, as the early learning program is launched in about 600 schools. The annual subsidy will grow to a peak of $51-million over the 5 years that the program is rolled out to more than 4,000 schools across the province.

“These are new dollars to stabilize childcare as a result of the 4 and 5-year-old who will be moving from childcare to the education system,” said Minister of Children and Youth Services Laurel Broten.

For the full article, please click here.

The Hamilton Spectator: "Full-day kindergarten gets the go-ahead"

Members of the Hamilton Child Care community feel the announcement is a good start and a positive step for child care.

The program begins in September in nearly 600 schools -- including 20 in Hamilton -- before it's implemented provincewide by 2015.

"I do think there's a lot of good news here," said Jim Commerford, CEO of the Hamilton-Burlington-Brantford YMCA. "This idea of allowing a partnership through a transition period really goes a long way in stabilizing the child-care community because now we are working on a partnership basis."

Maureen Hall, director of the family and children's program for Today's Family Early Learning and Child Care, sees the funding for stabilization and retrofitting as acknowledgement of serious concerns raised by local child-care leaders.

 

For the full article, please click here.

More articles:

Toronto Star - "Province gives $51 million to stabilize day cares: Full-day kindergarten could affect enrolment as 4- and 5-year-olds move to school-based program" Please click here.