EXCERPTS
Ontario NDP MPP Peter Tabuns has introduced a private member’s bill that seeks to prohibit daycare wait list fees and ensure that parents who are on wait lists are treated fairly when daycare spots are filled.
The campaign to address these issues was started by Nadine Blum and Kelly Doctor, who spoke to the media with MP Tabuns this morning. You can read more about the issue and their efforts to ban daycare wait list fees here.
Here’s what you can you do to help!
Childcare in Ontario is a huge problem. There are simply not enough spots to meet demand, and parents are often desperate. Many childcare centres have taken advantage of the situation and charge non-refundable wait list fees. What is worse, these wait lists are sometimes administered in an arbitrary way, and stories abound of people jumping the queue.
Hundreds of Ontarians signed a petition to end these unfair practices and as a result, MPPs are now working to put pressure on the government to ban non-refundable wait list fees and to make wait lists more transparent. A private member’s bill has been introduced, but that’s not enough – the government won’t take action until they hear that a lot of parents think that these practices are abusive and unfair.
Here’s how you can help in 30 seconds or less: Copy and paste the message below into an email and send it to Premier Kathleen Wynne (premier@ontario.ca). Copy MPP Peter Tabuns (tabunsp@ndp.on.ca) and MPP Arthur Potts (apotts.mpp@liberal.ola.org) who are trying to advance the issue. You can also include your own story about how much you paid in fees or how difficult it was to find a daycare space. Politicians keep statistics on how many messages they receive on a particular topic, so every email counts!
-reprinted from Goldblatt Partners