Media advisory:

Without funding in the 2012 Provincial budget, child care advocates are warning that hundreds of child care centres will close.

The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care will be launching a new website focusing on the positive contribution made by individual child care centres along with the impacts to those centres as a result of underfunding and the poor planning and implementation of full-day kindergarten. The website, www.childcarenow.ca [2] will feature the individual stories of child care centres across the province.

We will be calling on the government for $287 million that is required to stabilize our child care programs. Without this funding, Ontario will see a wave of closures of its child care programs.

Our press conference will also include a parent focused on action tools for parents to reach out to provincial politicians in advance of the 2012 provincial budget - www.childcarematterstome.ca [3].

WHAT: Launch of Website and Campaign to Save Child Care Centres

WHEN: Tuesday March 6, 9:30 a.m.

WHERE: Queen's Park Media Studio

WHO: Sheila Olan-MacLean, Kawartha Child Care Services

Andrea Calver, Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care

Pete Treadwell, Parent

MPP Peter Tabuns, NDP Education Critic

Contact Information: Andrea Calver 416-538-0628 x 4 or 416-434-8031