“An unnecessary risk”: Over 140 organizations send Open Letter to Ontario Education Minister Todd Smith opposing his attempt to open up more of Ontario’s child care system to for-profit provision

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Over 140 Ontario organizations – including small and large child care programs from across Ontario, churches, francophone associations, labour unions, post-secondary and research institutions – have come together to send an Open Letter to Ontario Education Minister Todd Smith today in response to his recent letter to federal Minister Jenna Sudds asking her to further increase the percentage of for-profit child care providers in Ontario, under the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care plan.

The diverse group of organizations, brought together by the Ontario Nonprofit Network and the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, denounce the Ford government’s attempt to further privatize child care in Ontario as both “dangerous and unnecessary”.

In their Open Letter, the organizations write that while they “recognize the immediate need to expand child care spaces and reduce waitlists, expanding for-profit child care will not solve the underlying issues that limit growth in the sector. Expanding for-profit child care will divert public funding to private owners and corporate profits instead of desperately needed investments into staff compensation, and other programs and capital investments that contribute to quality care for our children.”

Instead of further privatization, the groups recommends that Ontario’s nonprofit child care providers, which include “Indigenous-led, Francophone, co-operatives, and those supporting children with disabilities, are ready and willing to work alongside government to expand their services, and support all the diverse needs of Ontario’s families.”

The letter makes three concrete recommendations to support nonprofit and public sector driven expansion of child care in Ontario:

1. Introduce a provincial funding formula that ensures long-term stability and viability of providers.
2. Increase the wages of early child care educators to attract necessary staff and keep Ontario competitive.
3. Provide sufficient capital funding and support for expansion.

Pamela Uppal-Sandhu, Ontario Nonprofit Network’s (ONN) Interim Co-Executive Director shares, “Nonprofits were the first to opt into the $10-a-day system, and continue to do so at higher levels than the for-profit sector. Nonprofit child care providers are eager to create an affordable, accessible, and high quality system that meets the diverse needs of families in communities across Ontario. Nonprofits need an enabling environment to continue and expand this work. The government’s investment into nonprofit child care is an investment into the long-term health and vitality of Ontario’s communities.”

In addition to the Open Letter, over 1300 individuals have signed a new petition to Prime Minister Trudeau, Premier Ford, Ministers Smith and Sudds calling for them to support educators and $10-a-day child care for families – not privatization.

“There is a groundswell of opposition to the Ford government’s privatization plan because Ontarians know that this isn’t the way to build a stable, thriving child care system for generations of our children,” said Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care.

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