Excerpts
Last week Tuesday, the Ontario budget was delivered in the Ontario legislature. The 2024 Ontario Budget ignored calls from the child care sector, advocates, experts, parents and educators for greater provincial operating funding to child care, funding to increase wages and provincial capital funding to expand spaces.
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Provincial allocations to child care remain lower today than they were when the Ford government was first elected in 2018.
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It is this provincial underfunding that is driving the precarity of the child care sector in Ontario.
By contrast, last Thursday, the federal government held a pre-budget announcement of a new $1 Billion low-cost loan program, $60 Million in grants to support new public and non-profit child care programs, and a student loan forgiveness for graduates of ECE programs who choose to work in smaller, rural, Northern and remote communities.
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These contrasting budget announcements make clear the different approaches and priorities of the federal and provincial government on child care.
The OCBCC will continue to advocate for all levels of government - federal, provincial and municipal - to collaborate together to ensure that the child care sector gets what they need to survive, thrive and expand. It’s what Ontario’s children, families and educators deserve.