What It’s Actually Going To Take For Universal Child Care To Happen
The federal government is on board. But creating a new social program as big as this won t happen without the help of a social movement. Nora Loreto Updated
(Photo: iStock)
I’ve never purchased a car, but when I registered my 10-month old twins for daycare, I got the rush that must come with buying one. I got out my chequebook, calculated what $90 per day for a year would equal and then divided it by months. It was the instalment plan, but for babies.
Because I live in Quebec, once a spot was available at a publicly-funded daycare, the price dropped from $45 per day per child to just $7.30. It took two years for two public spots to open up, though it usually takes less time to find a spot for a single toddler. But while my kids were in private care, I received several thousand dollars back at tax time thanks to Quebec’s child care tax refunds. Not ideal, but better than in most places in
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The marquee item in Monday’s federal budget was a promise for $30 billion in child care funding over five years, and at least $8.3 billion annually after that. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the goal is to see a 50 per cent reduction in average child care fees by the end of 2022, and $10-per-day fees by 2026.
All of this is easier said than done, however, as child care directly falls under provincial jurisdiction. On the other hand, federal money on this scale has the potential to move things quickly, and the feds are already involved in child-care funding through bilateral agreements signed in 2017.
TORONTO There are growing calls for child care staff and educators to be prioritized higher in the queue for COVID-19 vaccines, as daycares remain open as an essential service. Ontario, where schools are currently closed to in-person learning amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, is currently in Phase 2 of vaccine rollout, which includes teachers, early childhood educators (ECEs) and daycare workers, but immediate eligibility is not universal. ECEs and daycare workers aged 55 and older are eligible for the AstraZeneca vaccine, and those aged 60 and older are eligible for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Those aged 18 and up living in one of Ontarioâs âhot spotâ postal codes are also eligible for vaccination.
Will your kid s daycare survive COVID-19?
Many child care centres across Canada are just scraping by. Photo: Getty Images
When Tia Shkolnik’s baby was six months old, she put down a deposit of more than $2,000 to secure a spot in a brand-new child care centre even though they weren’t planning on sending their daughter to daycare until she was 12 months old. “It’s very hard to find a daycare placement where we live,” explains Shkolnik.
By the time her daughter’s first birthday rolled around in May 2020, COVID-19 had closed most daycares across Ontario, including in Vaughan, where they live. After