Congratulations Mr. Premier

OPEN LETTER TO: Mary Anne Chambers, Minister of Children and Youth Services, Ontario and Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario
Dear Minister Chambers and Premier McGuinty,
It is my pleasure today to write to you on behalf of parents, child care workers and the over 500 member groups and individuals that make up the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care to congratulate you both on the strong public positions your government has taken in recent weeks to protect the ongoing development of a regulated child care system in this province and across Canada.
It is clear that there is suddenly a great deal at stake for child care in Ontario. The federal Conservative government’s threat to cancel the five year funding agreement creates real uncertainty here in Ontario with the Best Start Plan. We cannot agree with you more Minister when you say that cancelling the agreement would be “disastrous.” (Globe and Mail, Feb 2, 2006)
As you are both aware, the immediate impact of cancelling the agreements is the stalling of Best Start and the loss of 25,000 planned child care spaces across Ontario. Another way of looking at this is to note that 58 new child care centres in Toronto will not be built, or that the roughly 7365 regulated spaces for rural municipalities will no longer be created. In addition we stand to lose significant new investments in special needs resourcing across the province. As was pointed out recently the impact in the federal Minister Diane Finley’s riding alone will be a loss of $7.7 million dollars and with this 165 regulated child care spaces.
Cancelling these agreements will diminish the current momentum towards developing the type of high quality, regulated early learning and child care system you both have clearly stated parents across Ontario want and need. This type of system includes opportunities for truly integrating children with special needs into early learning environments and flexible programs to meet the needs of all parents. It is about creating high quality early learning environments that parents can trust to deliver a safe, nurturing and educational program to their children while they work, study and participate in their community. All families stand to lose under the federal governments plan if early learning and care programs are not accessible and affordable in communities across our province.
We are encouraged to know that you both understand the value of developing an early learning and care system in Ontario and are aware of the impacts to parents and children if the funding agreement is cancelled and Best Start stalls. The Best Start Plan has been a great success of your mandate so far and it would be devastating to all of us if it failed now.
We are behind you when you state:
“We worked hard to acquire that five year agreement and we believe it should be honoured. The five year agreement respects and reflects the concerns raised by parents...Parents here in Ontario...in Ontario we are looking at stats that show 70 per cent of parents with children under the age of six require child care and with the number of regulated spaces that we already have in the system, plus the 25,000 increase plan for the next three years we would still only be meeting about 20 per cent of that demand.” Minister Chambers (CTV Newsnet, 08 Feb 2006, Mike Duffy Live)
“The average person on the street understands agreements to be agreements that are made in good faith and (should) be honoured on the basis of the good faith on which these agreements are struck.” Minister Chambers (CBC Radio, 09 Feb 2006, As It Happens)
“I’m very determined to continue to lobby on behalf of parents in Ontario. And I have to believe that the importance of this plan to families in Ontario will be respected. The agreement is based on getting the money from the federal government; it’s no more complicated than that. The agreement requires the money from the federal government in order for us to expand child care spaces for parents and children who say they need that in Ontario.” (CBC radio)
“We’ll be asking him to honour the agreement that the Government of Canada has with the people of Ontario. In particular, I will remind him that there are thousands and thousands of families who are relying on that new agreement.” Premier McGuinty (CTV Newsnet, February 3, 2006)
We are also pleased to know that you both reject the idea of individual transitional deals with each province as Prime Minister Harper suggested last week and that you have both stated clearly that all provinces must be treated equally and that your definition of transitional funding is the full five-year commitment.
Therefore we encourage you both to continue to fight for our child care system and not to allow the new federal government to back out of a bonafide agreement signed by the previous government. These agreements were not about politics but about the needs of children and parents across Canada. By working together we can build the high quality child care system whose time has come in Ontario and across the country.
Sincerely,
Kira Heineck,
Executive Director
Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care