Game changing grant for child care centres in Ontario

By Bernard De Vaal

Ontario wants to close the gender wage gap by getting mothers with young children back into the workforce.

A persistent problem around making this happen is setting these parents up with quality and affordable day care services, largely subsidized by the provincial government.

Premier Kathleen Wynne wants these primary care givers, who are those left caring for their pre-schoolers, to have the same opportunity to pursue their careers as their male counterparts.

“That’s not fair, and it is up to government to step up and do something about it,” Wynne remarks on a media release from the province.

This development is in line with Ontario government’s pursuit of a “fairer, better Ontario.”

The provincial newsroom reports that Ontario will create 45,000 new licensed child care spaces by funding 500 new child care rooms at 188 schools across the province.

The 5-year commitment to parents and children up to the age of four, will see $1.6 billion in capital projects alone. Additionally, the province will increase operating funding and subsidies to child care spaces already benefitting from partial grants.

Indira Haidoo-Harris, Minister Responsible for Early Years and Child Care predicts that more than 84,000 children and families will benefit from existing and new licensed child care services.

The Media Plex spoke to a supervisor of a local child care centre who wished not to be identified.

She says that she feels the most significant benefit to mothers having the opportunity to leave their children at facilities for the first time is that they would be able to go back to school.

“Most mothers that leave children at our facilities go to work, but many are also using the opportunity to prepare themselves to pursue second careers,” she says.

She goes on to say that the current provincial grants have done a lot for the industry.

She adds, “there are really a lot of grants for various types of projects especially play-based materials for exploration.”

Even though their school missed the application deadline, she is excited by the prospects that the grant offers.

The Ontario government are citing rapid economic change for a host of similar generous subsidies Ontarians can benefit from.

Similar projects that are already effective or in the pipeline are a minimum wage hike of more than $3 in January 2018, free tuition to thousands of students as well as some of the biggest concessions in medicare in generations.