Ontario Budget 2022: child care plan can’t work without a workforce strategy. ECEs and child care workers are worth more than Ford’s budget

Child Care, Governmental, Solidarity

Toronto, ON— Child care advocates are warning the Ford government that without a better plan to solve the child care workforce shortage, their budget’s promise to build 86,000 new child care spaces will fail. “We have a child care workforce crisis right now, driven by low wages. As a result, child care centres are closing…

Ontario child care advocates celebrate hard-won victory with signing Canada-Ontario child care agreement; call for stronger child care workforce strategy

Child Care, Social Services, Solidarity

Toronto, ON— Ontario child care advocates are celebrating the signing of the Canada-Ontario child care agreement, but are also warning that child care expansion will fail without addressing the sector’s plummeting staff retention and growing worker shortage. “Today is a huge step forward, but we must learn from the mistakes of our past and correct…

Child care workers reach agreement with KDSB to continue vital services in Sioux Lookout

Child Care, COVID-19, School Boards

Sioux Lookout, ON—Families in Sioux Lookout can be assured that child care services will continue in the region after the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Kenora District Services Board (KDSB) pen a deal to ensure Biidaaban and Sioux Mountain Public School Children’s Centres avert closure. “Families, workers, and the broader community of…

ECEs call for a provincial child care workforce strategy, including a $25 minimum wage, to address Ontario’s growing child care worker shortage

Child Care, COVID-19, Governmental

Toronto, ON—More than 1,500 Early Childhood Educators (ECEs), child care workers, and supporters have signed an online letter calling on federal and provincial governments to ensure that the Ontario child care agreement includes a wage grid and strategy to address the province’s growing child care workforce crisis. Ontario has until March 31st to sign onto…

Outside workers in Southwold and West Elgin join CUPE

Parents, workers launch public campaign to demand that Sioux Lookout council “ensure the continuity of vital services for families”, following the announced closure of two children’s centres

Child Care, COVID-19, Municipal, Social Services, Solidarity

Sioux Lookout, ON—Parents, workers, and community members are launching a public campaign to demand that the Municipality of Sioux Lookout reverse their decision to close Biidaaban Children’s Centre and Sioux Mountain Children’s Centre that provide quality child care to more than 200 families in the region. “Many parents are rightfully concerned and disappointed by the…

Waterloo emergency child care staff shortages largely preventable, reports CUPE

Child Care, COVID-19, Governmental, Municipal

WATERLOO, ON – Waterloo Regional Council’s short-sighted decision to close five children’s centres, that provided care to more than 250 families in the region and employed more than 50 child care and early learning workers, may leave some families and frontline workers without access to emergency child care as the Omicron surge proliferates the child…

Ontario’s Fall Economic Statement ignores the child care crisis in Ontario

Child Care, Governmental, Social Services

Toronto, ON—The Ford Conservatives’ Fall Economic Statement fails families by continuing to ignore the importance of child care to our social and economic recovery. There was little mention of child care and no new, critically needed funding announced. Families and educators continue to wait for the Ford government to sign on to the federal child…

Sioux Lookout Mayor and Council take risky gamble on child care; exposes region to possible loss of crucial services in “child care desert”, reports CUPE

Child Care, Municipal, Social Services

Sioux Lookout, ON—Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) members at Biidaaban and Sioux Mountain Children’s Centres are fearful of child care space loss after the Municipality of Sioux Lookout announces transfer of child care services to the Kenora District Service Board (KDSB). “At a time when child care is crucial for our COVID-19 economic recovery,…

While the Ford government delays and distracts, child care advocates call for system overhaul; Ontario must make child care a right

Child Care, Social Services, Solidarity

TORONTO, ON – A recent announcement by the Ford government of targeted after-school recreation programs is a further distraction from the province’s failure to sign a child care deal, reports CUPE. Advocates urge Premier Ford to focus on making child care a right in the province by implementing $10-a-day child care and creating a workforce…

Advocates call on Premier Ford to include decent work, expansion of non-profit spaces in Ontario’s child care agreement with the federal government

Child Care, Social Services

Toronto, ON – The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC), and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) echo calls on Doug Ford to sign a bilateral child care agreement that puts decent work at its core and includes a moratorium on the expansion of for-profit…