Parents, employers, encouraged to voice concerns to province
MANITOULIN—Islanders are being strongly encouraged to voice their concerns about the current childcare crisis to the province. This includes families whose children are on a waiting list for childcare at Manitoulin Family Resources (MFR), employers who can’t hire staff because parents without access to childcare can’t work, and all childcare agencies in the district.
“We need support from the government to pay staff properly and value the true work we provide,” MFR Children’s Services Program Director Diana St. Pierre told The Expositor.
In a letter to parents whose children are on the childcare waitlist at MFR, Ms. St. Pierre invited parents to help advocate for better childcare funding in Ontario. “The waitlists in our district are long and continue to grow, as well as in all of Ontario,” she wrote. “The province’s Canadian-wide Early Learning and Child Care plan offers to create access to families with a promise of a $10 a day fee for families, which is wonderful for families, but only if they can access it. This plan lacks the resources to support the staffing needs to fill childcare programs and as we all know, without staff, childcare isn’t accessible. Without childcare, parents can’t work!”
There are at least 50 families on MFR’s childcare waitlist and more waiting to access Assiginack and Gore Bay Childcare Services. The letter was sent to all parents “wanting to have their voices heard” on the issue.
“It affects the economy greatly because we have people that could be hired for jobs in the community who can’t work because they can’t access childcare,” said Ms. St. Pierre.
“Agencies like ours are hugely lacking the support for staff, for families able to access the program, so MFR and other childcare agencies need proper funding for staff wages,” she continued.
MFR is asking all families and employers who are impacted to send a letter to the provincial government on the last day of May to have their voices heard.
“What is happening is we have employers calling us,” Ms. St. Pierre said. “They need to hire someone but we don’t have enough staff to provide childcare for these families’ children. We have educated individuals who want to work in different sectors but can’t because of a lack of staff in childcare to provide this service to families.”
Ms. St. Pierre said the need for childcare in the district grew by 100 children in the last three months. “This trend will continue,” she added.
MFR has the space for more children but doesn’t have the people to hire to provide the services. Staff-to-children ratio is a concern, as is staff wages. Non-early childhood educators are not eligible for wage increases, explained Ms. St. Pierre. “We are seeing people applying who are eager to work in childcare but as soon as we tell them the wages, they tell us that is not going to work.”
MFR currently has 11 staff in childcare and need 28 to be at full capacity (in Mindemoya and Little Current).
Andrea Lewis, spokesperson for Gore Bay Child Care and Assiginack Child Care said both are in support of the MFR letter. “We are in the same crisis as they are,” she said.
There are 56 children on the waitlist in Gore Bay, 39 in Manitowaning’s family group room and another 14 waiting for the school-aged children’s program in Manitowaning. “For us to run fully, we would need to hire at least five employees in Gore Bay and three more in Manitowaning,” Ms. Lewis said. “Parents are calling and asking where they are on the waitlist. We unfortunately have to tell them there is no wiggle room.”
The letter will be sent to Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce and Canada’s Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould, and will be cc’d to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Peter Bethlenfalvy Ontario’s Minister of Finance.
The letter reads in part “A childcare staffing shortage, driven by low wages, is threatening the accessibility of childcare for families. Across Ontario, childcare centres are closing rooms and limiting enrollment because they cannot retain staff in their programs. Lack of licenced childcare is a barrier for parents to return to or enter the workforce or education, thus putting a strain on families, hindering economic participation, and forcing parents to remain at home to care for the children.”
The letter explains the high demand and growing waitlists for childcare spaces in the Manitoulin-Sudbury District and states, “Ontario’s current approach to the implementation of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care plan will not solve this growing crisis alone. The agreement is putting Ontario on the path to reducing childcare fees to an average of $10 per day, which will create a demand for more childcare spaces when a workforce shortage already exists.”
“The Province of Ontario committed to creating an additional 86,000 licenced childcare spaces in Ontario without an explicit solution for increasing the number of RECEs (registered early childhood educators) and childcare staff to fulfill this commitment.”
The letter also points out the wage disparity between RECEs employed by school boards and those employed in licenced childcare centres. “For childcare to be high quality and accessible, workers need: a real salary scale starting at $25 per hour for all childcare workers and $30 per hour for RECEs; benefits and pensions; paid sick days; professional development time; and paid programming time.”
Letter writers are requesting that the Province of Ontario “launch and financially support” an accelerated ECE program to be completed within 14 to 16 months, similar to the program for personal support workers (PSWs) launched in March 2020, where funding supported the costs of tuition, books and other mandatory fees to help address the shortage of PSWs in Ontario.
“In recent years the recruitment and retention of qualified RECEs and childcare staff has been a challenge that has been inflamed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the letter continues. “The childcare and early needs sector needs proper funding to support wages, decent work standards, strengthening program quality and pathways to acquire upgraded qualifications, especially for those of rural, remote and marginalized communities.”
The RECE workforce will continue to exit the sector without meaningful investments into these areas. The letter urges the government to invest in childcare that specifically address the needs of education and creates “the decent work conditions that allow not just the Manitoulin-Sudbury District, but all of Ontario’s communities to thrive.”
Ms. St. Pierre said they wanted a specific date (last day of May) as to when the letters are going to be sent to government. “This is all Ontario,” she said. “Letters have gone out to childcare agencies in the district and we encourage (everyone) to send in letters voicing these concerns to the government. The bigger the voice, the better.”
