Province Not Ready to Commit to Opening Day Cares to Everyone

Wednesday, 29 April 2020 14:01

The Province of Ontario is not ready to commit to re-opening day cares to everyone just yet, they do understand how crucial it is to have day care centres open for when we start to re-open the economy.

ONTARIO - The Province of Ontario announced an expanded list of front line workers who can access emergency child care right now.

During the question and answer period, the Premier and Education Minister were asked when all child care spaces will be opening. Education Minister Stephen Lecce says they understand child care centres need to open when people start going back to work.

"The Government fully understands and recognizes that child care is often a pre-requisite for labour market precipitation. As the economy returns and we have a recovery, we want to see more people working and therefore we need to ensure that child care is accessible. So part of the broader recovery plan is very much considering that reality."

Minister Lecce also said they are not ready to put a date on it just yet.

"We want to make sure that every family remains safe, that these children remain safe and so every decision we make in the coming days and weeks, to help support that economic recovery and individuals, particularly women entering the labour market, knowing that child care is so important, the paramount decision will be safety. We appreciate the relationship between the two and we will be making those announcements in the coming weeks according to the recovery plan unveiled on Monday by Minister Phillips. We definitely appreciate the importance of the economy, we know child care is a pre-requisite to get people back into the job market and we hope to have another update on that, once we get a better update on the modelling from the Chief Medical Officer of Health."

Minister Lecce says day cares could be included in Stage 1 of the recovery plan.

"It is a decision point that will come from the recovery chair Minister Phillips, we are consulting the economy and our health experts. I understand and I think every member of this Government understands how critical child care is to getting our economy on track and how important those centres are in permitting parents and especially women entering the job market. We get that and we will be able to report more on the details of those stages in the coming days."

Premier Ford did say they numbers are trending in the right direction and they hope to share some good news in the coming days. You can listen to the full statement from Minister Lecce below.