EXERCPTS.
The price of daycare in Ontario could skyrocket if the province doesn't invest millions of dollars into the child care system in this year's budget, say labour and child care advocates.
Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan and Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care co-ordinator Andrea Calver are touring the province to draw attention to the need for ongoing funding for child care.
"If community child care is going to survive in this province, we would need an injection of about $100 million this year alone, just to make it affordable for parents," Ryan said during the tour's stop in Windsor Monday night.
If the province doesn't allot the money, Ryan said child care fees could rise by 20 to 40 per cent and many child care centres could close.
Ontario parents pay up to $60 a day for child care. In neighbouring Quebec, Ryan said the price is just $9 a day and in Manitoba, it's $16 a day.
For Windsor's Danielle Lachance, $30 a day for each of her two children is already a heavy burden on her family. She said the prospect of a rate increase could force her to choose between placing her children in daycare and keeping her job. "It's getting to the point where because we have multiple children, it's going to be an option for me to stay home because I can't afford to pay the daycare bill to go to work," Lachance said. "So, we're at a point where we're ready to maybe sit down and talk numbers and make a decision because we can't afford to pay the bill."
As the mother of a two-year-old, Liv Iatridis said she hopes the government budgets more money for child care. She pays $38 a day for child care - "definitely one of the better prices" in Windsor, Iatridis said. But as an aspiring early childhood education worker, she has another reason to hope for government investment; the wages could certainly use a boost, she said. "We're educated and we're getting paid less than some people who are working at Tim Hortons," Iatridis said.
Though the province's full-day learning program for four- and five-year-olds will remove some clients from Ontario's daycares, Ryan said the industry still needs an influx of cash. Child care businesses will shift their focus to younger children, who are more expensive to care for, Ryan said.
Calver said increases in child care costs burden both families and the economy. "Windsor's not going to get back on its feet until it has more jobs, but for those parents to be able to work, they really do need affordable child care," she said. "More parents working means more tax revenue for the government. More parents working is good for Ontario's economy."
Last year, the province budgeted $63 million for child care, but when Ryan met with Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan last week, Duncan made it "perfectly clear" that he will not be putting additional funding into child care this year, Ryan said.
A spokesperson for Duncan said the finance minister wouldn't comment on the 2011 budget until it's delivered.
- reprinted from The Windsor Star