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EXCERPTS
Local daycare advocates fear the lifting of a moratorium on tax subsidies could make way for large commercial child-care centres in the region. Regional council effectively ended the moratorium on tax subsidies for new commercial child-care centres yesterday by adopting an accreditation program which operators will have to participate in to receive regional tax subsidies.
The aim of the program is to improve the quality of child care. But Catherine Fife, co-ordinator for the Child Care Action Network of Waterloo Region, told councillors that lifting of the moratorium invites large, commercial child-care centres to the region. These types of centres pay lower wages and cut corners at the expense of children, she said.
Daycare advocates want council to keep the moratorium to stem the growth of for-profit centres. Waterloo Region spends about $32 million a year to subsidize child-care fees for about 2,500 children a month, subsidize the wages of child-care workers, fund services for special-needs kids and pay the cost of regional daycare facilities and home child-care programs.
The region has 130 licensed programs, of which 28 are commercial and 102 are non-profit centres. Since 2004, the region has been involved in a voluntary accreditation program in which operators of child-care facilities get inspected to achieve bronze, silver or gold status in areas of staff development, best practices and quality assurance.
About half of the commercial centres and 75 per cent of the not-for-profit centres participate. Under this new policy, the accreditation program will be mandatory for all new centres, and existing facilities must enrol by June 2011 to get tax subsidies. There are about 25,000 children in the region in need of child care, but there are only 8,719 licensed spaces. It's this shortage that prompted councillors to debate the issue for almost two hours.
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- reprinted from The Record