Excerpts
Some daycares in Toronto and the GTA closed Tuesday to protest the province's new child-care funding approach, which they say could put them at risk of permanently shutting down — but the education minister says the changes will go ahead.
The new formula, which will take effect in January, impacts daycares enrolled in the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program, the federal government's plan to reduce fees to $10 a day.
Some daycare operators say the province's changes could under fund their centres, limit operations and threaten their financial autonomy. They say they won't be able to cover costs for special programming or additional staff.
…
New funding plan will continue, education minister says
Minister of Education Jill Dunlop said the province is planning to move forward with the new funding plan. She said the formula was created after consultations with daycare operators.
"We've met them, we've listened to those concerns and we took those into consideration when developing the new funding formula," she said on Tuesday.
She said she plans to meet with the protesting daycare operators on Thursday.
…
Most daycares don't support protest: policy coordinator
Carolyn Ferns, a policy coordinator with the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, says most daycare operators "don't want any part in" the protest.
Several daycare programs have written to their families letting them know they disagree with the protests and the closures, she said.
"The majority of child-care programs, both non-profit and for profit, are busily trying to implement this funding formula for January, ready to make it happen," Fern said.
According to the new formula, Fern said every child-care program will receive a benchmark allocation, which will automatically bring half of child-care programs in the province more funding.
On top of that, child-care programs can receive legacy top ups to cover additional costs if they have higher than average costs, she said.
…