Hundreds of subsidized childcare spaces could be slashed if city councillors decide to approve the 2009 draft budget.
“We’re trying to get families off social assistance and into job training or education, trying to move people into being self-sufficient, and that usually takes childcare,” says Somerset ward Coun. Diane Holmes. “And then here we are cutting 700 child care spaces.”
The childcare spaces are part of a larger group of cuts to programs which are cost-shared with the province. Initially the province provided funding for a specific number of childcare spaces, but it now only provides a set amount of money, regardless of the cost of an individual space. For the past few years, the city has chosen to put more funds into the pot to make up for the funding gap.
The cost-share ratio for childcare is meant to be 80 per cent provincial funding and 20 per cent city funding.
As of September 2008, the city is contributing $15 million, or 27 per cent of funding. In restoring the original cost-share ratio, the city will be able to save $4.6 million to put toward its current $35-million budget deficit.
“I don’t think there’s any jurisdiction outside of Ontario that’s tried to do a formal childcare system through property tax,” says Aaron Burry, city director of parks and recreation.
The city had started planning to reduce childcare funding in February. Burry says that this budget option would simply accelerate those plans. There are currently 1,000 to 1,200 people on the waiting list for childcare and these cuts would increase that waiting list to up to 1,800.
Burry says city staff did not take these decisions lightly. When the draft budget was put before council, City Manager Kent Kirkpatrick said that the great challenge of this budget was to make it sustainable, in contrast to previous years. Burry echoes this sentiment, calling the childcare cuts one of the more difficult options council will face during deliberation.
Shellie Bird, union education officer for CUPE local 2204, says that cutting these spaces is short-sighted and economically counter-productive.
The city is shifting the burden of their budget deficit onto the backs of the most vulnerable, she says, and taxes need to be adjusted to create more funding.
Holmes says that’s one of the options she will be looking at. She adds that she will not be supporting the cuts to childcare.
She will be present at a public meeting on the budget Nov. 24, where she says people will have the chance to weigh in on the debate.
“We’ve come to the end of being able to cut the budget and not affect services,” says Holmes.
“If your expenses are going up and your city is growing, you have to have a budget and a tax increase that reflects that growth.”