{"id":270057,"date":"2022-02-11T11:30:26","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T16:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/no-good-reason-for-ontario-to-delay-signing-child-care-agreement\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:49:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T03:49:21","slug":"no-good-reason-for-ontario-to-delay-signing-child-care-agreement","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2022\/02\/no-good-reason-for-ontario-to-delay-signing-child-care-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"No good reason for Ontario to delay signing child-care agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Ontarians \u2013 not just parents of young children \u2013 should welcome Ottawa\u2019s national child-care policy<\/a> and urge the province to sign on. Ontario is the last holdout<\/a> on the national initiative. While Premier Doug Ford dithers, a small minority is trying to weaken the pan-Canadian policy. They are trying to undermine the national approach, for reasons that include skepticism, financial self-interest and old-fashioned nostalgia for the 1950s family. While they may have the Ford government\u2019s ear, they should not.<\/p>\n

Ford has argued for extra concessions to Ontario under the federal plan \u2013 more federal funds beyond the $10 billion already promised (he says this is to recognize that Ontario has full-day kindergarten for children under five), a commitment for funding beyond five years (the term in all the other deals), and a \u201cno-strings\u201d transfer of the funds, similar to the deal that Quebec signed.<\/p>\n

Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who leads Ontario\u2019s negotiating team, has gone further<\/a>, repeatedly saying Ontario wants any deal to let parents choose any kind of child care, be it for-profit, not-for-profit, or unregulated.<\/p>\n

While elected Conservative officials raise objections, there are also voices outside government trying to water down the potential deal. Some critics<\/a> of the federal plan argue the focus on licensed and regulated child care is flawed. They further claim that excluding unlicensed babysitting restricts parent choices. They call for funding to go directly to parents, with no requirement that tax dollars be allocated to regulated care that meets minimum public standards.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear. Parent vouchers and their equivalent do nothing to expand access, promote affordability or fairly compensate educators. Evidence<\/a> shows that supply-side funding is the best way to build stable early-learning and care services. What\u2019s more, the \u201cpaperwork burdens and red tape\u201d that raise the ire of some critics are really regulations to protect the health and safety of children \u2013 an objective that should not be up for debate.<\/p>\n

How to grow an accessible, high-quality, equitable child-care system<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s legacy of inaction on early-childhood education and child care<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some base their opposition<\/a> to the federal plan on the grounds that it would not serve a majority of Ontario\u2019s children. Quite to the contrary: low access to licensed services in Ontario should be a motivator to act, not a hindrance.<\/p>\n

Currently, licensed child-care services in Ontario can serve fewer than one in four children<\/a>. Ontario\u2019s situation is not unique, and that\u2019s why agreements in every other province and territory<\/a> make rapid expansion a priority. Historically, child care has long been underfunded, and expansion will take time, even if it begins immediately. Ottawa\u2019s plan may be the only way to achieve high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care for all families, no matter where they live.<\/p>\n

Some lobbyists<\/a> want to reverse Ottawa\u2019s emphasis on not-for-profit child-care services. About 20 per cent of Ontario\u2019s child-care centres are run as a commercial business. Ottawa\u2019s insistence on building up non-profit services is for a good reason: evidence<\/a> shows a clear pattern of better quality in the non-profit sector.<\/p>\n

Commercial operators<\/a> in Ontario, though, are part of an industry association which also includes non-profits. They are demanding they be eligible for provincial funding and parent-fee relief to create what they call a level playing field. They insist that they are \u201cfollowing the same rules\u201d and thus any different funding is unwarranted, overlooking the fact that non-profits and charities are subject to different rules around the distribution of assets upon closing. A more discerning analysis is that commercial operators are eager to receive public dollars for their private businesses.<\/p>\n

One of the more opportunistic claims is that female entrepreneurs<\/a> might lose their business if funding is restricted to licensed non-profit programs. It\u2019s true that women provide nearly all home-based babysitting. Whether Ontario signs a child-care agreement or not, providers caring for four or fewer children can continue to operate and independently set the fees they charge parents.<\/p>\n

However, it is likely that many parents currently using an unlicensed babysitter will choose to move their children to licensed care as it becomes more widely available and more affordable. As a result, we can predict the supply of unregulated caregiving will shrink. Either way, unregulated babysitting is no more appropriately eligible for public funding than any other unregulated home-based business.<\/p>\n

Finally, many of these minority voices challenge the very vision of universal child care. They betray a barely veiled longing for a mythical time when child-care services were unnecessary because mothers were full-time homemakers. Since the 1970s, the majority of mothers have held paid jobs. Even in the 1950s and early 1960s, about one in five Canadian mothers had a paid job. Today, more than three-quarters of Ontario mothers are in the labour market, along with even higher rates of fathers \u2013 longstanding trends with no sign of reversing.<\/p>\n

Under Ottawa\u2019s multilateral framework agreement, more than $30 billion is available for provinces and territories which accept its vision of high-quality, regulated, primarily non-profit early learning and child-care services, provided by well-educated and fairly remunerated educators. There is no reason to cave to those who seek to weaken child-care policy. For more than 838,000 children five and under years \u2013 and for everyone who relies on someone who relies on child care \u2013 a solid Ontario child-care agreement can\u2019t come soon enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All Ontarians \u2013 not just parents of young children \u2013 should welcome Ottawa\u2019s national child-care policy and urge the province to sign on. Ontario is the last holdout on the national initiative. While Premier Doug Ford dithers, a small minority is trying to weaken the pan-Canadian policy. They are trying to undermine the national approach, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":280267,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T03:49:23Z","apple_news_api_id":"85a6883e-ab81-4a1e-993f-652b70d8b30d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T03:49:23Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AhaaIPquBSh6ZP2UrcNizDQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9362,9357,9372],"tags":[],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4245,4251],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[],"class_list":["post-270057","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economie","category-politiques-sociales","category-recent-stories-fr","irpp-category-economie","irpp-category-politique-sociale"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nNo good reason for Ontario to delay signing child-care agreement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2022\/02\/no-good-reason-for-ontario-to-delay-signing-child-care-agreement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No good reason for Ontario to delay signing child-care agreement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All Ontarians \u2013 not just parents of young children \u2013 should welcome Ottawa\u2019s national child-care policy and urge the province to sign on. 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