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Excerpts:
Private day-care operators in Ontario came forward Wednesday looking for treatment equal to their non-profit counterparts.
Trying to shed some of negativity surrounding their sector, the Association of Day Care Operators in Ontario released a report about the quality of care at for-profit facilities around the world. The group wants to ensure it gets a slice of the federal government's new day-care pie, which is worth $250 million a year in tax credits.
The concern, said president Greg Humphreys, is that only non-profit daycares are eligible for the new tax credits, announced in the recent federal budget to encourage the creation of 25,000 new child-care spaces.
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Humphreys says it's unfair to leave for-profit centres out of the mix because the care they offer is equally high quality.
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Some who have studied child care said a for-profit system doesn't work in the case of daycares.
"You can't break even and provide good child care. That's why it has to be partly publicly funded," said Martha Friendly, co-ordinator of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit at the University of Toronto.
"(Private) is going to be uneven and it's going to be inequitable. It's never going to be good access."
She added that research has shown for-profit facilities are less likely to provide spots for children with disabilities and babies.
"It doesn't work for human services," she said…
-Reprinted from the Toronto Star
[Note: For more information about issues in for-profit and not-for-profit child care, see RELATED LINK above.]