Ontario to boost wages for early childhood educators

TORONTO — Ontario is set to increase the wages of early childhood educators in a bid to boost recruitment and retention amid a staff shortage that advocates warn could hamper the growth of the national $10-a-day child-care program.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said in an interview with The Canadian Press that he received the feedback "loud and clear." "We know wages are the issue, we know the wage floor is far too low...so why aren't we just sort of immediately addressing low wages while we continue to build these other longer-term strategies out?" she said.

Unless the 86,000 new spaces promised by the province are accompanied by improved workforce compensation, child-care operators will struggle to implement the new child-care system, the agency told the government in a blunt assessment at the start of the consultations. Shortages are already affecting the sector. The number of ECEs in licensed child care decreased by seven per cent between 2019 and 2021, government documents say. Child-care centres have had to close rooms because they are unable to staff them.

A summary by the government lists dozens of other workforce suggestions from the consultations, including offering pensions, benefits and a wage grid, adding ECEs to a list of priority occupations under the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program, accelerated tuition-free diploma programs, and a provincial media campaign to recognize the value of early childhood educators.

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