Ford gearing up to privatize child care in Ontario

The Ford government needs to start spending the child care funding provided by the federal government. Instead, Ford cut $85.5 million from municipal budgets putting $10/day child care at risk.

Women across Ontario, and Canada, deserve universal $10-a-day publicly funded and delivered child care.

A recent National Post article, citing libertarian-conservative think tanks the Fraser Institute and Cardus, encouraged federal Conservatives to vote against the final version of Bill C-35, Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act. The article erroneously claimed the national child care plan failed to live up to expectations and was unraveling.

The National Post’s disinformation failed to include details of the current roadblocks deliberately put in place by premiers like Doug Ford. So, allow me to fill in those important blanks.

In 2021 the federal Liberal government committed to $10-a-day child care. Public funding meant broader access for parents and well-deserved increased wages for early childhood educators (ECE). These were goals that both parents and child care advocates made clear they wanted and supported.

Truth is, the Ford government flatlined operational funding to child care. In fact, child care funding is lower today than when Ford took office – and that’s before adjusting for inflation.

Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care (OCBCC) wants to see registered early childhood educators (RECE) earning between $30 and $40 per hour with annual increases plus comprehensive benefits and pension plans.

For readers who suddenly thought, ‘What! Why should women taking care of babies and little kids make that much money?’ Give your head a shake!

This predominantly female workforce has been undervalued and overlooked for far too long. These are women with degrees who are taking care of infants and children and they deserve a standard of living that allows them to live and thrive in the cities and towns in which they work.

Don’t fall for the old corporate fascist tactic of pitting workers in one sector against workers in another. Instead, fight for a decent standard of living for all workers. Because the alternative is a female workforce working for just above minimum wage while private, for-profit corporations increase their bottom line to the detriment of our children and our collective future.

For-profit operators generally pay their staff much less than not-for-profit and public centres. RECE in private companies earn $17 to $24 per hour while municipalities like Toronto pay $32 to $39. RECE shortages are more acute because the Ford government is unwilling to increase the current inadequate wage floor of $23.83.

Cooks in for-profit facilities get minimum wage while Toronto municipality pays these often red seal certified personnel with industry experience between $27 and $30 per hour. Pay in this case is important because you need a level of dietary and food handling knowledge to ensure the safety of children and staff given the large number of dietary restrictions and food allergies that are found in the average child care setting. Journeyman cooks/chefs have that training as well as the ability to make appetizing food from wholesome raw ingredients rather than relying on packaged products.

Since non-profit and public child care centres pay their staff a living wage or better, private-for-profit centres with abysmal wages stand to gain the most from the Ford government’s minimal wage enhancements.

The Ford government also has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that infants and children with disabilities receive care and that means paying workers for the extra education, training and experience they bring to the table as well as for the taxing workload this work can entail.

Currently only non-profit and municipal child care centres are required to accommodate infants and children with disabilities. For-profit centres are not required to accept infants or children with special needs let alone those whose fees are subsidized.

Ford’s solution to the child care crisis is simplistic at best. He wants to fast track RECE qualifications while buying parental votes with paltry cash back incentives. Ford is not even considering addressing the fundamental issues of inadequate wages, benefits, and pensions let alone initiating funding for the creation of additional non-profit and public child care spaces.

Ford has a $44 billion contingency fund (2022) that continues to accrue. Ford could do the right thing and draw from that fund to make improvements that would actually address pre-existing workforce shortages in a substantial and meaningful way while adequately funding essential programming that remains outside the private, for-profit purview.

Currently, Ontario’s child care funding formula is based on the education funding formula. That means funding is tied to enrolment and wages are based on the average across the province – and, that average has historically been artificially undervalued and suppressed because this is female-dominated care work.

Instead, Ford and Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce, need to ensure an appropriate funding formula is created for child care and early childhood public and not-for-profit centres that provides adequate funding that meets parity with municipal or other public sector workers.

Most importantly, the Ford government needs to start spending the provincial funding provided by the federal government. Instead, Ford has cut $85.5 million from the budgets of the municipal child care system putting the $10 per day childcare program at risk.

That is in addition to a 2019 decision by the Ford government to download 50 per cent of child care administrative costs directly onto municipalities.

The Ford government is making a political choice to ignore the fact that $10-a-day child care is a public system and a public project. Since that’s the case, Ontarians need to demand transparency and accountability from a provincial government that has been holding its cards too close to its fascist little chest and not playing by co-operative, democratic rules.

Only publicly run child care centres are being ordered to administer the value-for-money audits that the Ford government recently announced. These audits will apparently determine if not-for-profit and public childcare programs could be operated by a ‘third party,’ -- aka private, for-profit corporation -- more efficiently.

If those facilities transition to private corporations, the Ford government would be able to boast cost savings, but that would be on the backs of ECE workers as well as the parents, infants and children who deserve $10-a-day publicly funded not-for-profit and municipal care that prioritizes kids over profits.

The independent audits laid out by the Ministry of Education, outline that municipal child care administrators need to employ independent auditors to complete the process by the end of 2024.

The ministry suggests funding the audit from the federal $10-a-day child care program or regular provincial administration funding – which was cut by 50 per cent in 2019.

Additionally, municipalities have had to contribute 20 per cent of the cost of creating spaces since 2019 when that was downloaded by Ford.

Overall, administrative costs in not-for-profit centres are lower than private, for-profit centres leaving more funds to allocate for wages and benefits. Other costs are minimized by centralizing administration and benefitting from economies of scale on other expenditures.

The child care crisis is yet another in the long list of crises choreographed by the Ford government. The deliberate under funding of essential services has created a false narrative that Ford and his government utilize to privatize, rather than properly fund, robust public child care, education and health care.

It’s clear that the Ford government has created a political agenda to ensure the Canada Wide Early Learning and Child Care agreement fails and with it, universal $10-a-day child care in Ontario.

Contact Education Minister Stephen Lecce to let him know that Ontarians have waited far too long for affordable, $10 per day child care that supports kids, parents, ECE workers and our collective future.

Tell Lecce and Ford: #HandsOffChildCareFord because we want #ChildCareforAll. #SpendTheFederalMoneyForChildCareLecce.

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Child Care Now is urging the federal government to expand its investment in child care in the March 2024 budget because no child or family should be left without access to affordable licenced child care. Sign the petition now and then share it widely.