Local parents, agencies rejoice over announcement of $10-a-day childcare

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“Extremely exciting” is how Nicole Matchett, a self-employed entrepreneur and mom to a 10-month-old son, described Monday’s joint federal-provincial announcement that will bring $10-a-day childcare to Ontario by 2026.

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“I was filled with a lot of emotions as I read through everything last night,” said Matchett, during a Zoom meeting hosted by Windsor-Tecumseh MP Irek Kusmierczyk.

Son Kian sat happily on her lap as she spoke about the difficult decisions made by parents and potential parents around affording to have children due to the high cost of child care.

“I kind of feel this generation, a lot of our (decisions around) having children is based not only on (concerns about the planet and the environment) but also the cost of living is so high,” Matchett said. “And $2,000 a month for two children to go to daycare, that’s a lot of money.”

This is just super, super exciting

“So the fact that we’re going to be able to really cut that down immensely will I hope encourage more people to have children that are in a situation where maybe their income is preventing them from doing so. Which is extremely heartbreaking.”

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Matchett started her business, Tauren EV Charging Solutions Inc., selling Level 2 charging solutions for EV vehicles, in August 2021.

She said not having a steady income, due to business fluctuations, puts extra pressure on a household as does the mental stress of not having enough money to place children in daycare.

“I come from a social work background. I know a lot of people who have children that they’ve had to raise in poverty situations and this really warms my heart knowing that we are moving in such a beautiful, beautiful, positive direction,” Matchett said.

“And for all the future entrepreneurs that maybe had to put their dreams of starting their own business on hold because of financial reasons, I think that this is going to be it for us women and men. This is just super, super exciting.”

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Alicea Fleming, director of impact and community investment at United Way/Centraide Windsor-Essex County, said “child care is a key barrier and one of the utmost priorities to support families and particularly low-income families and families led by single mothers.”

“We have a lot of work to do to close the gap to getting women into the workforce and really making sure that we’re supporting them to support their families,” Fleming said.

United Way has found that some local neighborhoods have 50 per cent of children living in low-income households, 30 per cent of those being lone parent, female-led families.

“This has the potential to fundamentally shift the trajectory of outcomes for an entire generation of children in our community,” Fleming said.

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Kusmierczyk pointed out that on average parents spend about $1,000 per child, per month on child-care costs locally — money equivalent to a mortgage payment for some.

“So this plan will save the typical family of four in Windsor-Essex over $10,000 each year in child-care costs. And that is huge,” he said.

“For a community like ours that has one of the highest child-poverty rates in Canada, this is a game changer. Every child deserves the best possible start in life and all parents should have the ability to build both the family and a career.”

Britney Pinell, program industry specialist at Women’s Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor (WEST), which offers employment training programs and supports women to enter the labor market, called it a “game-changing announcement for women.”

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“We know from our experience that women’s participation in the labor market and childcare really go hand in hand together,” Pinell said.

Dave Cassidy, president of Unifor Local 444, representing more than 10,000 workers in manufacturing, hospitality and other industries, also praised the deal signed Monday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

“For over 25 years, our union and former CAW before we became Unifor, the women in our union supported by the men, have been fighting for affordable childcare,” Cassidy said.

“I think that this victory belongs to parents, grandparents, caregivers, early childhood educators,” he said, adding, “Still we have some work to do on the pay (for childcare workers) and we will continue to work on that.”

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Child-care fees are expected to drop by 25 per cent starting April 1 and 50 per cent by the end of 2022. The deal commits Ontario — the last of 13 provinces and territories to sign on to the deal — to bring average fees to $10 per day by 2026.

“The little bit of delay for it to be $10 is a little bit frustrating for me but maybe I will now have four kids instead and those kids will get the $10 a day,” Matchett said with a laugh.

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