BY: Matias de dovitiis
Some things change over time, others stay the same. The need for parents to care for their children has not ever changed. How parents take care of their children has changed in the last 20 years. The days of single income breadwinners and stay at home moms from the days black and white TV are mostly over. We have smaller families and family circles now. While many of us grew in large extended families with many cousins and with multiple people to serve as caregivers that is much less common now too.
Parents need childcare to go to work, particularly younger parents. With rent and mortgage payment what they are today, even most two income households also need daycare to make ends meet. While the Federal government has come through with a universal child care agreement, an agreement that was promised for over 30 years before it came to life, the Province of Ontario has dropped the ball in childcare. Time and time again Doug Ford’s government has not prioritized childcare. The Ontario government was the last one to sign an agreement with Ottawa. They have dragged their feet on raising staff salaries, creating a shortage of staffing and have dragged their feet on many other things. Importantly they have also reneged on promises to build dozens of new childcare centres for over 5 years now.
The Provincial government promised in 2017 to build 29 childcare centres in the City of Toronto in TDSB schools. Every year goes by, and the promise gets less and less plausible. As of the printing of this article, they have approved or given the money to build none of the 29 childcares so far. None of the funding promised has been delivered. In schools like Chalkfarm Public School, where parents have to juggle different drop off and pick up for their young children, having a childcare centre in the school would be a life changer. Chalkfarm PS has been on the list since 2017, but the project is not approved or funded yet by the Provincial government. A new childcare centre there would provide more stability and more opportunities to work, study and life improvement for 50 families. Childcare spaces can decrease poverty rates and improve quality of life. If you do not have childcare you cannot work, and you cannot earn a living.
Source: for a detailed look at the missing funding and the location for the promised childcare centres please look at https://thelocal.to/childcare-daycare-tdsb-gracedale-public-school/