Parents, Workers, and Community Advocates to Hold Rally Against Sale of Storied Community Daycare

OTTAWA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--News broke in an email and then filtered through the tight-knit parent community like wildfire: the Glebe Parents’ Day Care is being sold to another provider. That a small group of parents on the Board of Directors could make this decision without wider parent input or any involvement from staff came as a huge surprise to people who have invested years in this community-based child care centre.

More than 500 people have signed an online petition calling for a halt of the sale which threatens the quality of care that families have come to expect and the hard-won improvements, such as a pension and paid lunch breaks, that help attract and keep dedicated workers.

Buoyed by such immediate and widespread community support parents and workers are holding an emergency rally outside of the day care centre on Wednesday evening.

WHEN: Wednesday, June 12, 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: 10 Fifth Avenue, Ottawa.

“This is a community-based day care centre. It’s built on relationships and trust. All of that has been broken by the actions of these eight Board members who operated in secrecy,” said Carling Shatford, member of the CUPE 2204 executive. “If this goes ahead, parents are going to lose the type of care they’ve come to depend on, workers are going to lose pensions, and our community is going to lose an important cornerstone.”

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