Ontario Educators and parents distance themselves from campaign against $10-a-day child care

Ontario child care organizations, educators and families are speaking out against a group of for-profit child care owners who are staging rolling closures in the province.

“It’s clear that there is growing backlash in the Ontario child care community against the tactics of this Alberta-backed group of for-profit child care owners this week,” said Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. 

Large and small child care operators have written to their families, reassuring them that they have no part in the for-profits’ protest and instead are working hard to make $10-a-day child care a success for families in Ontario. The YMCA of Greater Toronto, Treetop Children’s Centre in Toronto, Milton Community Resource Centre in Peel, Rising Oaks Early Learning in Waterloo Region, and Andrew Fleck Children’s Services in Ottawa are among those who have communicated with families on the issue, making it clear they disagree with both the issues and tactics of for-profit owners. 

Meanwhile, the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, AECEO, the professional association representing ECEs across the province, stated that they believe that the best way to ensure ECEs and child care workers have access to decent work and professional pay is for all programs in Ontario to be a part of the $10-a-day system. “System building takes time, it comes with challenges, and we still need big improvements to wages and working conditions in Ontario. But that doesn’t mean that the $10-a-day plan, and its current and potential benefits for educators, should be paused. In fact it should be happening faster than ever,” said AECEO Executive Director Alana Powell. 

Meanwhile parents are taking to social media to decry the tactics of for-profit child care owners, which put their child care spaces and fee reductions at risk. 

“For-profit operators…call for dismantling CWELCC’s $10-a-day program and funding families directly instead. As a parent, that would be a nightmare. Let’s not let for-profit operators ruin everything we’ve gained under CWELCC. Recent child care fee reductions have been transformative for families.” Toronto mother Brynne Sinclair Waters posted on X. 

Treetop Children’s Centre in Toronto wrote to their families last week stating, “At Treetop Children’s Centre, we understand the significant impact that rolling closures of childcare centres will have on families in Toronto. To be clear, as a nonprofit childcare centre…we want to let our community know that we will not participate in these closures.”

Andrew Fleck Children’s Services in Ottawa wrote to their families last week, explaining: “For-profit operators say they want unlimited profit – not sure how they can (or how they were) achieving that without compromising quality. But now that the child care sector is supported significantly by taxpayers, having limitations on profit is logical.”

Across Ontario more than 70% of child care spaces are operated on a non-profit basis, where staff and directors are busy preparing to implement the new funding formula and to reduce child care fees to no more than $22 per day in 2025.