The government has drafted – but not yet released – a child-care workforce strategy based on consultations held earlier this year with dozens of groups, including advocates, experts, operators, municipalities and colleges.
"What we heard is that we've got to do more to create more incentives to retain the workers and to recruit new ones, because we need thousands of additional workers to meet the needs to fill the 86,000 spaces that province is on track to create," he said.Ontario committed in its deal with the federal government on $10-a-day child-care to set a wage floor of $18 an hour in 2022 and increase it by $1 a year up to $25. But Lecce said he is heeding the calls to do more.
Child-care centres have traditionally relied on parent fees to largely fund operations, including staff wages, but under the $10-a-day program they cannot raise fees, and have asked the province to fund raises for ECEs in order to attract and retain them. "Our position on that would be to pause on expansion until we get the workforce issues dealt with," Linda Cottes, the YMCA of Greater Toronto senior vice-president of child and family development said in an interview this week.Ministry documents from the start of the consultations show that officials estimate the province could be 8,500 ECEs short by 2026.
About 4,200 new students enroll in an early childhood education program each year and the average graduation rate is about 72 per cent, but only about half of registered ECEs choose to work in licensed child care, according to the government.
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