By Travis MacLeod
When Asli Ahmed was about to give birth last year, she was given some unsettling news.
She was told that as soon as she came out of the hospital, her two other children would be losing their spots in day care.
In a world where day-care spots are scarce, that meant her children would be back on a waiting list — and could be waiting up to three years.
“I told them if I lose my two spots and I have to go all the way through (the waiting list process) again, if I have a chance to go back to work, I can’t,” says Ahmed.
“We’re trying to work and provide for our children and they’re saying ‘no no no we’re sorry you have to go on the waiting list’ and they know the waiting list is three years.”
Waiting lists are just one of the things parents and child care workers point to as a result of lack of funding.
And things could get worse, according to a report recently released by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
CUPE’s Shellie Bird says the lack of funding is a sign the Ontario government is leading child care down the road to privatization.
By downloading the responsibility for child care onto cash-strapped municipal governments, Bird says municipalities are turning to the for-profit sector to pursue service.
She says it’s how the provincial government is privatizing child care without coming out and saying it. And she says it won’t be long before privatization happens right here in Ottawa.
“When municipalities are desperate like they are now, you can get huge chains coming in that can provide service at a cheaper cost,” says Bird. “And it’s going to be more of a political battle for us to keep them out because people are desperate.”
Bird says for-profit child-care centres cannot provide high-quality service. These services come at a cost. Higher profits mean centres have to pay their workers less, making employee turnover high.
She says one American chain that tried to enter the Ottawa market had its curriculum developed in the United States rather than locally.
She says the for-profit sector will often lobby the government to lower the child care standards so it can increase its profit margin.
The Ministry of Community and Social Services, which is responsible for child care, says it has no interest in privatizing child care.
“We’re really interested in giving parents choice and flexibility in terms of their child-care options and we have no interest in taking away that choice,” says ministry spokesperson Dianne Lone. “The ministry spends over $7 million on childcare every year and it’s increased by 33 per cent since 1995.”
Lone says she has no idea why CUPE is saying the government is pushing for privatization.
Her words are echoed by Gayle Preston, former director of child care with the former region of Ottawa-Carleton.
“That’s maybe where they think the government’s going. I don’t think that’s necessarily the case,” says Preston.
“There’s obviously issues when you have for-profit organizations working with vulnerable client groups, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put in safeguards on that. That’s why you have licensing.”
The CUPE report on privatization looks at not only child care, but also how other public services are being privatized across the country.
Bird says it’s something that’s particularly worrisome under the Harris government.
“They really feel that if you can open up a telephone book and find it there, then government shouldn’t be doing it. They don’t see a role for governments to provide these services to our most vulnerable citizens,” says Bird.
In the mean time, Ahmed has her day-care spots back now. She resents the fact that in order to get them back she had to present a letter from her doctor that said her blood pressure was too high.