Excerpts from the submission:
The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care has been advocating for a universal, not-for-profit, quality early learning and care system that is accessible and affordable for all parents since 1981. To that end the discussion items and recommendations contained in this paper are reflective of this organizational position.
The OCBCC working group discussions were consistently framed from a "systems building" perspective. The central question the group focused on was, "How will the delivery of full-day learning for four- and five-year-olds positively contribute to the development of a full system of early learning and care for children, newborn to 12 years of age?"
Ontario needs a system of early learning and care that meets the developmental and social needs of children and the economic needs of their parents. The development of a universal service for four- and five-year-olds must be done within the framework of developing a whole system.
Ontario's current provision of early learning and care is fragmented, inaccessible and unaffordable. Outside of the provision of junior and senior kindergarten, which is funded through the public education system, the cost of early learning and care is covered through parent fees. Subsidies are available based on income, but they are not universal. There is not enough public investment to meet the needs of parents with young children.
There is strong consensus that moving away from the current funding mechanism and extending the principles of "public delivery" to early learning and care would be a tremendous system-building step.
The OCBCC discussion reflects the experience of the child care sector. Many past political promises have resulted in ill-defined short-term programs that have only added to service fragmentation. Therefore, a primary concern that emerged again and again was that if FDL is implemented without a system-building approach, it will lead to more fragmentation and instability in an already fragile network of services. The success of full-day learning for four- and five-year-olds is predicated on implementing it within a systems framework that builds on existing assets and promising practices.
There is a need to ensure that this opportunity for expansion does not erode existing service delivery for families, nor provide opportunity for profit provision to expand in the sector.