This op-ed originally appeared in The Hill Times on October 21, 2026.
Centres cannot expand if they cannot hire and keep qualified staff. New spaces on paper mean little to parents if there aren’t enough educators to care for the children who would fill them.
On Oct. 21, Child Care Worker and Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day, Ontarians will rightly celebrate the childcare workers who make an enormous difference in the lives of children and families every day.
But there is a contradiction at the heart of these celebrations. We call these educators essential, yet too many are still paid poverty-level wages, denied decent benefits and pensions, and left struggling to build a future in the profession they love.
If governments truly want to show their appreciation for childcare workers, they need to do more than just thank them. They need to start walking the talk.
Canada has made historic investments in childcare, bringing down fees for many families, creating more spaces, and laying the groundwork for a national system of early learning and childcare. These investments are worth protecting and building upon.
But affordable childcare is only one piece of the puzzle. Parents also need to know that quality care will be available when and where they need it. And that just isn’t possible without a stable, well-supported workforce.
Simply put, we will not fulfill the promise of affordable childcare without good childcare jobs.
Across the country, workforce shortages are holding back the creation of new child-care spaces. Centres cannot expand if they cannot hire and keep qualified staff. New spaces on paper mean little to parents if there aren’t enough educators to care for the children who would fill them.
Likewise, when experienced educators leave the profession because they cannot afford to stay, children lose the benefit of the stable relationships and skilled care that are so important to their development.
Early childhood educators are trained professionals doing demanding, skilled educational work. They deserve good wages that reflect their qualifications, responsibilities, and tremendous contributions to children’s lives.
Educational assistants, inclusion-support workers, cooks, administrative staff, and other workers also make childcare possible, keeping centres open in our communities. Yet, they are too often excluded from government wage policies and left earning little more than minimum wage.
While some provinces have introduced wage policies to support the childcare workforce to deliver affordable care to communities, the results have been uneven and inadequate—and workers haven’t been at the table.
Across much of the country, wages are too low and fail to keep pace with inflation. Without the promise of decent pensions, paid leave or benefits—the very things that make a career sustainable —too many skilled and qualified workers are being forced out of the field at the moment they’re needed most.
And childcare workers are shut out of decisions about their own compensation. Public policy should support free and fair collective bargaining, not undermine it. Yet, when governments set funding and wage policies, workers are left to negotiate with operators who have little control over, either.
Some wage policies effectively freeze previously negotiated wages for unionized workers, penalizing those who have already negotiated for better compensation.
The federal government’s new Care Economy Alliance is purporting to address these challenges. But workers don’t need more discussions about how valuable their work is. They need governments to act on what we already know.
That means properly funded, comprehensive wage grids covering the entire workforce, decent benefits and pensions, paid leave, and respect for collective bargaining rights. It means making childcare a career that workers can enter with confidence and stay in for the long haul.
Canada’s childcare ambitions depend on the people who deliver that care every day. Without a strong childcare workforce, promises of affordable fees and better access will remain out of reach for too many families.
On Oct 21, let’s make our appreciation for childcare workers more than just token gestures. Let’s make it something they can see in their paycheques, their benefits, and their ability to build a secure future doing the work our children and communities depend on.
