City of Toronto CUPE 79 and 416 Strike – Day 29 – Impact on Children in Ward 43
‘Kids make bad political footballs’ - John Laforet
I’ve written about child poverty in Ward 43 before. Listening to resident’s stories during and after the campaign made this the kind of issue for me that it is difficult to see as anything but a social justice issue. Ward 43 has the highest rate of child poverty in Scarborough. Low income Ward 43 residents who are eligible for a child care subsidy have lost access to 97 of those spaces or approximately 10% of child care subsides available to residents since the 2006 election and without any consideration to the impact of the economic crisis that has seen unemployment skyrocket in Toronto to 9.6%.
I am definitely not your average child care advocate. I am male, young, single and without children. But – as someone who has run for public office, and been involved in politics in a community with the highest rate of child poverty anywhere in Scarborough; it’s an issue I’ve come to learn a lot about. Linking the availability of child care to a parents ability to provide a life outside of poverty for a child is a challenge I believe needs to be taken up if we are to unravel some of barriers to employment faced by especially single parents.
Because of this strike, of the 935 families that were able to keep their subsidies after the City of Toronto cut roughly 10% of the subsidies allocated to eligible Ward 43 residents, 25% of those families have found themselves without access to their subsidized child care spot for 29 days and counting. Because the City directly operates 226 spaces in Ward 43 that are available to families eligible for subsidy, and because those day cares are run by unionized workers, 226 low income families have 226 children without access to much needed, affordable day care.
If the other impacts of the strike wasn’t bad enough, these families are now forced to find unsubsidized options of childcare to ensure that they are able to continue going to work to maintain employment. Child care is not a service the City provides to enhance the lives of residents, it is one the City provides that is essential to allow low income earners to remain in the work force, provide for their families and have affordable, safe and accessible childcare for their children. The strike is now depriving them of that.
Kids make bad political footballs. While garbage may be the most noticeable impact of the current labour disruption, the City shuttering its day cares and providing no alternative to parents whose children were receiving subsidized daycare in the public system is probably the most serious.
Somebody needs to start thinking about the impacts this strike is having on Toronto’s lowest income earners, their children and our future. Children without access to licensed, safe and affordable childcare are at risk. With each day this strike carries out, the 3000 or so kids whose subsidized care has been provided directly by the City are at greater risk. Their families financial situations further tightened, not to mention the tens of thousands of parent’s who rely on parks and recreation programming to provide summer time daycare through the summer camp programming run by the City of Toronto.
My hope is prior to any future labour disruptions, the City can reach an agreement with the unions to ensure that childcare and more importantly child safety isn’t compromised by a future strike. Better yet, the City could end this strike by removing the unnecessary and controversial issue of sick leave pay from the negotiating table, strike an agreement and strive to prevent a future strike by maintaining good relations with union officials and starting negotiations well in advance of the expiration of an existing collective agreement.
Tags: Child Care Subsidies, Child Poverty in Ward 43, City of Toronto, City of Toronto Child Care, City of Toronto Day Camps, City of Toronto Garbage Strike, City of Toronto Strike, City of Toronto Strike Update, CUPE 416, CUPE 79, Day Care, Toronto Child Care
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