Local early childhood educators ‘frustrated’ as Ontario moves to freeze wages

The Ford government has decided to freeze the wages of early childhood educators next year, instead of giving them the expected $1 an hour increase.

The move is being called “heartless” and “irresponsible,” as daycare centres in the province continue to struggle with staffing shortages and years-long waitlists.

“Angry — angry, frustrated and disrespected,” said Shirley Bainbridge, a board member with the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic Childcare Centre.

Bainbridge says daycares are already experiencing a staffing crisis, and this wage freeze for early childhood educators, starting next year, with the expected $1 an hour wage increase being scraped, is another blow that will trickle down to families desperate for care.

“They are putting their children on lists of multiple sites, hoping, just hoping, that one will open up,” said Bainbridge.

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Early childhood educators who work under the federal government’s Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) Program earn $25.86 in the lowest rate, and that’s now staying the same next year.

“Early childhood educators are being forced out, because of low wages, speaker, and parents are paying the price,” said Sol Mamakwa, the NDP MPP for Kiiwetinoong, Ont.

The country-wide program has lowered childcare rates dramatically across Canada, and while Ontario has yet to meet the $10 a day goal, the program was extended in the province, but the Ford government says the feds aren’t holding up their end of the bargain.

“It is something that we have been working closely with the federal government on, and while childcare is a provincial responsibility absolutely, the CWELCC system itself is a program that the federal government brought in,” said Paul Calandra, the Ontario Minister of Education. “It was billions of dollars underfunded.”

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Advocates for early childhood educators were at Queen’s Park Wednesday, saying that a wage freeze creates a domino effect.

“Childcare centres have rooms closed, not because they don’t have a huge waitlist of families, but because they cannot staff,” said Carolyn Ferns, with the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care.

Bainbridge says parents are putting their babies on daycare lists before they are even born, and she says many of them won’t even get a call back before their kids go to school.

“Some parents are giving up their careers, because they don’t have a spot,” said Bainbridge.

Early childhood educator advocates say the expected $1 per hour wage increase provided hope for educators, as the cost of living keeps rising.

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