TORONTO – Child care workers and early childhood educators (ECEs) at the Learning Enrichment Foundation (LEF) have voted over 90 per cent in favour of joining the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). In a sector plagued by financial uncertainty and a long-running workforce crisis, the unionization of 314 ECEs and early childhood assistants at…
TORONTO – As hundreds of parents in 14 for-profit child care centres are reeling from the news that their fees will go up by 150 per cent in January, CUPE members, child care workers, and families came together to mark the start of ten days of action in support of $10-a-day child care. Child care…
TORONTO – Ontario families with young children are launching a new group today, Parents for Child Care, to add the important voices of families to child care policy debates. Parents for Child Care brings together Ontario families who support the $10aDay child care plan and want to see it strengthened and expanded. “Parents across the…
TORONTO – Ontario child care organizations, educators and families are speaking out against a group of for-profit child care owners who are staging rolling closures in the province. “It’s clear that there is growing backlash in the Ontario child care community against the tactics of this Alberta-backed group of for-profit child care owners this week,”…
TORONTO, ON – In response to growing pressure, Premier Doug Ford has announced that his government will conduct yet another audit of Ontario’s Child Welfare System. Their previous audit, which cost taxpayers millions, was only four years ago. “My head is spinning,” says CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. “It’s clear that what is missing from…
TORONTO – Over 140 Ontario organizations – including small and large child care programs from across Ontario, churches, francophone associations, labour unions, post-secondary and research institutions – have come together to send an Open Letter to Ontario Education Minister Todd Smith today in response to his recent letter to federal Minister Jenna Sudds asking her…
TORONTO – New Ontario Education Minister Todd Smith signaled to the province where he wants the child care sector to go – and it should be deeply concerning to anyone who cares about children, workers, or the judicious use of tax dollars. In his first public statement about the sector in crisis, Smith asked federal…
TORONTO – On Friday, as roughly 70 child care workers ran inventive, world-expanding programs, the President of CUPE 2484 attempted to hand deliver a message from workers and parents to the head office of Ideal Child Services Group. Management, though, was nowhere to be found, so Jess Tomas slid the petition and reams of signatures…
TORONTO – It is challenging to be a child care operator in Doug Ford’s Ontario. With no roadmap to solve the workforce crisis and zero financial transparency since the province signed on to the $10-a-day child care program, operators have been left running deficits. The announcement from one of Toronto’s largest child care providers that…
PETERBOROUGH, ON – When young people in Peterborough and Northumberland County are in crisis, they turn to Kinark Child and Family Services. Lately, they haven’t ended up in treatment but on growing waitlists with little prospect of getting help. That issue, along with high staff turnover and increasing burnout, was highlighted today for the Board…
