Social Policy in Ontario

The Child Care Modernization Act, introduced Tuesday, aims to crack down on bad operators by punishing them faster and harder. It would also make it less profitable to run an unregulated centre, while enhancing the benefit of being licensed. No wonder child-care advocates are cheering.

Existing rules are topsy-turvy. They impose tight standards on licensed daycares but allow unlicensed operators to thrive in a grey zone of lax regulation and feeble government enforcement. Inspectors currently have to go to court to shut an illegal daycare or even to levy a fine. And the maximum fine is only $2,000.

Meanwhile, some kids are at risk. Three young children have died in unlicensed home daycares, just in the Toronto area, since July.

Once enacted, the proposed new law would give the province authority to immediately shutter a daycare operation deemed a risk. Officials wouldn’t need to go before a judge to issue fines of up to $100,000. And when the province does opt to prosecute a repeat offender in court, the guilty party could be fined $250,000 — more than 100 times the current penalty.

A rogue operator could lose his or her house. Good. That’s a real deterrent; so much so that the government isn’t expecting to have to hire more inspectors. The money is better spent opening more licensed daycare centres.

The act also tightens up rules on how many children are permitted in an unlicensed home daycare centre. The limit would remain the same: a maximum of five. But unlicensed operators would have to include their own kids under the age of 6 in that total. Currently a provider’s own children don’t count, which doesn’t make sense. They presumably need as much supervision as the kids whose parents are paying for this service.

At the same time, properly licensed home daycare operators will be able to earn extra money by expanding supervision to an additional child. Their maximum goes from five to six. According to the government, if all currently licensed home daycare providers took on one more kid, it would amount to Ontario having 6,000 new child-care spaces.

That seems an over-optimistic projection as many of these operators aren’t caring for the maximum number of children that they’re allowed now. Even so, the enhanced limit seems a useful incentive to promote licensing.

It’s important to note that even with passage of this act, high-quality, affordable child care won’t be available to thousands of Ontario families who need it. A bold new investment of provincial and federal money is required, like the $1.1-billion national child-care program recklessly killed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Still, Wynne is right to demand higher standards of the child-care operations we have. For vulnerable children, safety comes first.

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2013/12/04/editorial_ontario_child_care_modernization_act_daycare_day_care_toronto_fines_unlicensed_child_careontario_is_finally_cracking_down_on_rogue_unlicensed_daycare_operators_editorial.html >