Available in print for order (see SOURCE) and online for download.
Excerpts from executive summary:
In the spring and early summer of 2001, representatives from the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and the Canadian Union of Public Employees took to Ontario's roads to bring together child care activists in 11 communities. The goal was to learn about and develop ways to fight the detrimental effects of provincial funding cuts and downloading on child care.
Workshops and forums were held for early childhood educators, parents and advocates in Dryden, Kingston,
Niagara, Oshawa, Ottawa, Pembroke, Peterborough, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Toronto and Windsor. This paper reports on the findings of the campaign tour and concludes with the following recommendations:
- develop a Quebec style child care program that provides affordable, high-quality regulated child care;
- maintain municipal child care centres;
- allocate a fair portion of the federal Early Childhood Development Initiative funds to regulated child care;
- allocate more funding for children with special needs;
- the province must meet its pay equity obligations;
- improve wages and working conditions for early childhood educators.