Ontario weakened its $10-a-day child care funding rules. Now the federal government is demanding answers about how they came to be weakened.
The Liberals gave Ontario an unprecedented two-month reprieve from child care regulation in October, after the Progressive Conservatives and then Ontario Premier Doug Ford claimed the rules were “inappropriate” and too onerous.
It was only when a federal court judge threw down the gauntlet that the Liberals offered a new compromise. This time, the government will impose a five-year wait period for new families to apply for family-friendly regulations before they can receive child care subsidies. Meanwhile, for new families who already have government-subsidized child care, the government wants to see proof that the program is providing the “maximum benefit” to kids. The five-year wait is meant to give parents and families time to adjust to the new rules.
So how did the regulations get weakened with just two weeks’ notice?
“The federal government wants to know which parents will be penalized. No one wants to punish parents who find subsidized child care very challenging and who, in fact, have found success with the subsidy,” said Andrew McLeod, head of the Child Care Advocacy Alliance Ontario.
“We can’t make this up. This was a backroom agreement. The new rules will impact children right across the province, and no one wants to see those children suffer. This is the only way to ensure we do not punish parents who have found work-related child care arrangements very successful.”
“We want parents to know and understand that child care is not a free benefit. It’s a very limited benefit — and the government is not just trying to cut the rates for parents who want to get rid of subsidized child care, the government is actually trying to punish parents who have succeeded in getting subsidized child care. I can’t imagine that’s going to be a benefit to the province.”
“The province
