Bill 143 restricts choice for parents as it will raise daycare fees, limit home child care start-ups, and force many existing home child care Providers to close or reduce available spaces.

We DO NOT support Bill 143 as it pertains to Providers caring for 5 or less children especially:

1) The proposed cap of two children under the age of two years for Providers.

2) The Provider’s own children under age 6 being included in the maximum number of children and,

 3) Allowing private, for-profit licensed agencies to remain the only regulatory option for Providers. 

The Minister of Education has stated this Bill will open “6000” new daycare spaces by offering an additional daycare space to “licensed” Providers.  This is a flawed proposal because ALL home  child care Providers are “unlicensed” in Ontario as the Ministry of Education DOES NOT directly issue licenses, monitor, inspect or provide support to individual Providers.  A Provider may work for a licensed agency but may never indicate they are “licensed”.  Licensed agencies are private businesses that operate FOR PROFIT and take a large uncapped and unregulated percentage of the Provider’s daily per child income.  Bill 143 does not create an equitable opportunity for Providers to become licensed and offers NO incentive for Providers to work for existing licensed agencies. 

We offer the following recommendations to the Ministry of Education regarding Bill 143:

            •           Increase the proposed restriction to allow more than 2 children who are under 2 years of age.  This would: allow Providers to more readily replace children leaving for school or their parent’s maternity/parental leave; prevent available spaces from remaining vacant in the most requested age range; facilitate children from the same family staying with the same Provider; prevent Providers from having to increase their rates due to forced empty spaces and; encourage potential Providers to establish new daycares.

            •           Decrease the proposed age (6) of a Provider’s own children being included in the maximum number of children to reflect that at 3.5 - 4 years of age children attend school full time.

            •           Create a central Provincial registry for ALL home daycare Providers.

            •           Allow relevant agencies such as the Police to report verified and convicted offences to this registry.

            •           Provide minimum provincial standards for all Providers to have current CPR, First Aid, Food Safety training, Police Record check including vulnerable sector screening, and a minimum number of professional training and/or development opportunities offered regularly throughout the province.

            •           Allow parents access to this registry and the ability to inquire (or search on a website) whether the home child care they are considering is in good standing and whether minimum provincial standards have been met.

            •           Establish a fair and effective inspection process for home child care that is performed through the Ministry of Education and NOT a widely variable group of privatized, for-profit licensed agencies. 

We welcome increased fines and consequences for offending Providers as outlined in the Bill.  Closing offending daycares benefits everyone.  

The vast majority of home child care Providers are nurturing and responsible individuals who partner with parents to help raise healthy and well-adjusted children.  The proposed Bill does not reflect, support or encourage the enormous contribution of home child care Providers to Ontario’s families and economy.

Ontario’s families deserve choice in child care. 

We support child care modernization but WE DO NOT SUPPORT BILL 143. 

Sincerely,

H.C.C.P.A committee against Bill 143