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New daycare laws proposed
(Update)
The province has introduced legislation to close loopholes and crack down on unlicensed daycare. Education Minister Liz Sandals says the new act would replace current legislation that hasn’t changed since the 1980s.
Child speaks: “This haunted ghost come in the kitchen.”
Many parents fear unlicensed daycare, especially since the deaths of children like two year old Eva Ravikovich, found dead in a Vaughan home that had 27 other children inside.
Anna Mule runs Baby Blossom Daycare: “We get a bad rap from the the providers who don’t do good care.”
That’s why Anna supports the proposed legislation: “There’s a lot of kids I’ve rescued from neglectful daycares. Ratios are way too high, they’re not following any regulations. Children sit in front of the TV all day. We don’t have TV. My sked is too busy for TV.”
Liz Sandals is Ontario’s Education Minister: “Now, there is very little penalty for willfully defying the rules.”
The new law would allow the government to shut down unsafe daycares, without a court injunction, and impose administrative fines up to 100 thousand dollars. Up to $250,000 for court convictions. those are far higher than current maximum fines.
Liz Sandals: “Right now, even to get the fine of $1,500 a day, we have to go to court.”
Anna Mule: “You guys know the rules, where does it go?”
Mule charges about 20 dollars less a day than licensed providers. She also has a two-year waiting list for her home daycare. Two of her clients are planning their next babies around her availability.
She cares for four kids and has a six and nine year old of her own; that won’t have to change under the proposed law which limits unlicensed spaces to five kids including the providers’ own, under six years. Licensed daycares could have six children per caregiver, up from five which could open thousands of new spaces.
Children speak: “Bye to santa! Bye santa! The end. I want to read it again!”
Mule says she would happily submit to any oversight by the ministry because she has nothing to hide. She invites parents to drop in any time and when they sign up with her she gives them a package full of her qualifications, her schedules and her philosophy. Unlicensed daycare supervision will still be driven by complaints and there is a new team that does only that But the Minister says most home daycares are stay at home moms who agree to look after neighbours or friends’ kids. And they are everywhere, impossible to monitor regularly.
