CUPE child care workers along with Secretary-Treasurer Candace Rennick were on Parliament Hill today calling for a national child care workforce strategy.
Rennick and the National Child Care Working Group delivered thousands of petitions to Patty Hajdu, Minister of Jobs and Families, and Anna Gainey, Secretary of State for Children and Youth before sitting down with the Ministers to discuss their priorities.
The petitions were signed by child care workers and their supporters as part of CUPE’s Shine a Light campaign. They demanded that the federal government immediately fund a national workforce strategy and work with provinces and territories to improve wages and working conditions for child care workers.
“We’ve seen incredible progress in bringing down child care fees recently, but waitlists are growing,” said Rennick. “Poor wages and working conditions make it impossible to recruit enough workers to deliver child care to every family who needs it.”
The average hourly wage for an early childhood educator in Canada is under $25.00. Few have access to a pension and many don’t even have health and dental benefits. Since the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care plan, some provinces and territories have taken steps to improve wages and benefits but they are still far too low.
“We need the federal government to make demands of provinces on wages and working conditions like they did on parent fees,” said the National Child Care Working Group’s Co-Chair, Jennifer Chase, “If they did, then so many more of us could stay in the profession to provide the quality care families deserve.”
The agreements that the federal government signed with provinces for federal funding under the Child Care plan expire in just over six months. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario have still not signed extensions to their agreements.
During the meeting with the Ministers, CUPE emphasized that the federal government should use these agreements to compel provinces to address the workforce crisis. Members also said they hope to see additional dedicated funds in the upcoming budget for boosting wages and benefits.
Later in the day, the Working Group met with Leah Gazan, NDP critic for Children Families, and Social Development. Gazan reiterated the NDP’s support for child care workers and said the federal government needs to do more to keep child care public.
“Today’s meetings and petition delivery are just the beginning. Early learning and child care workers are the backbone of this system, and they deserve fair wages, benefits, and respect for the critical work they do. We look forward to working with the federal government to build a strong national workforce strategy that supports workers, families, and children across the country,” said Secretary-Treasurer Candace Rennick