Free Child Care in Ontario and what are your thought on that one?

[daycaremom9]

Just a heads up from B.C. Our government has started a Fee Reduction Initiative. Daycare providers are given the choice at this time if they want to opt-in. All parents are eligible to receive this as long as their daycare provider has opted into the program. There will be a list of participating daycares online so Parents can look up if their daycare is accepted. I opted in only because I felt I was being forced to. As it turns out only about 20% have opted in so far.
This initiative was announced publicly before they informed daycare operators. The contract that we were initially given had a deadline of March 27th, about 2 weeks before the deadline. We have been given tidbits of info through teleconferences and emails. It's apparent they don't really have a plan and are making it up as they go along. So in essence we were forced to sign a contract that was amibiguous and confusing.

[cfred]

I'd love to hear more about this daycaremom9. How does it work? The title doesn't sound good for providers. Is it like a subsidy?

[Rose1]

* It's an obvious vote grab.
* With Ontario holding the highest debt in its history, is this something we can afford? Where is the money coming from?
* Could these funds be used more effectively, freeing some of it up for other high need areas (mental health, special needs, seniors, etc)?
* With such a robust supply of cost effective childcare being provided by the Independent Sector, why is the Liberal government choosing to focus on costly, centre based care rather than a less expensive direct licensing model or registry?
* Why is this only now an issue, just 3 months before an election?
* Severely limits parental choice.
* Is before and after school care also free? Why not?
* Why are my childcare fees only 'free' for 1.5 years?
* Young children in classroom environment for 10-12 hours every day.

Hi cfred,
This is all true when you ask us or people who are thinking clearly,but i doubt that people with little children would care about it at all and especially when promised a huge savings on day cares..
I think most likely it will be the same as when they proposed JK full time a few years ago.That affected us too,but not as much! Now this proposition might easily work out again but wil affect us much more in a bad sense

[Peacefulbird]

A question (out of context, sorry about that) it seems I cannot figure out how to start a threat. I'm wondering what are ontario caregivers thoughts about the "two working caregiver model " proposal. It seems they're debating that now.

[daycaremom9]

I'd love to hear more about this daycaremom9. How does it work? The title doesn't sound good for providers. Is it like a subsidy?

The family daycares that have opted in would receive $60-$200 for each child in order to decrease the parents fees by the same amount.There would be a list of which daycares have opted in on-line. The daycares that have opted into this initiative have signed a contract agreeing that we wouldn't raise our rates for the duration of the contract (1 year) and that we wouldn't be taking more than 4 weeks total of vacation time (only allowing us to take 2 different periods for no longer than 2 weeks at a time). I'm ok with everything set out aside from all the extra time filling out forms. But who knows what they'll include in this contract next year.
The government here wants to open huge centres but how will they staff them when there is a shortage of people untrained? The daycare association here alluded to the fact that the government may be trying to close privately run daycares and using these owners for these centres.
The government keeps talking about "quality daycare" demeaning us private daycare providers assuming that we don't run a quality program.

[cfred]

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Hi cfred,
This is all true when you ask us or people who are thinking clearly,but i doubt that people with little children would care about it at all and especially when promised a huge savings on day cares..
I think most likely it will be the same as when they proposed JK full time a few years ago.That affected us too,but not as much! Now this proposition might easily work out again but wil affect us much more in a bad sense

Oh, I agree! People will only see the savings. However, it should be noted that they don't have nearly enough spaces to accommodate all the children in Ontario. There will still be a market for us, though our window will be much smaller. And this doesn't factor in families with nannies or other forms of childcare. Considering how poorly FDK has gone, I think we'll be considered the more 'elite' form of childcare for those who can afford it. I know Montessori and private school enrollments are up since FDK started going down the tubes. Considering how poorly FDK has lived up to the hype, I'm thinking the free daycare will be of similar quality. On the other side, I'm hoping the PCs adopt Patrick's original plan of refunding 75% of childcare fees back to parents. That seems a smarter solution and I think it would resonate with the public. That reduces cost for families while allowing families to choose the style of childcare that works best for them. Let's utilize the childcare already available, rather than spending $38k/space for centre based care, while stripping families of all options. Ford said he liked that aspect of the original platform, but we're still waiting to hear back. I think campaigning starts in earnest next week.