OFA Commentary #3205
Efforts to bring affordable and adequate child care facilities to rural Ontario continues to be a focus of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. For years OFA and its local federations have worked to realize this dream, and despite recent government announcements, it remains a dream.
In July, Ontario Premier McGuinty announced a three-year ‘Best Start Plan’ that will deliver about 1.1 billion dollars in Federal funds to provide improved child care facilities for Ontario children. The plan will also relieve municipalities of their responsibilities to share a portion of the costs of the increased child care spaces.
The Premier’s announcement of the plan indicates 25,000 new child care spaces will be created by the end of the 2007-08 year. There’s a catch that eliminates rural Ontario children from benefiting from the announcement – the child care spaces have to be in licensed facilities.
Very few Ontario farm families have access to licensed child care facilities, and because the work hours of Ontario farm families are so variable, children in these families need care when care givers aren’t usually available. Consideration is being given to locating licensed day care facilities in schools, an approach that would solve some difficulties for rural farm families.
At the June meeting of OFA’s Board of Directors, a recommendation from the Rural Infrastructure committee was approved. This recommendation calls for the Federal Government to compensate farm families and stay-at-home parents in the form of tax rebates or credits equal to the amounts provided in government subsidized daycare.
OFA, working through its national organization, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, will continue to work with federal officials to have the goals of the committee recommendation implemented.
When the province made its announcement in July, Minister Mary Anne Chambers described it as ‘an investment that keeps growing as our children grow. How we choose to support them now will determine the quality of their lives and the lives of all Ontarians in the future,’ she said.
OFA feels the same about the children of farm couples, and will continue to search for ways to get affordable and appropriate child care in the rural areas of the province.
Over the years, local federations of agriculture, working with OFA, have succeeded in getting pilot projects established to meet the needs of farm families for child care. Unfortunately, funding was not long-term and the facilities disappeared when the funding expired.
Farm families have unique needs for child care. At planting and harvest times, parents are required to work in the fields for long hours each day, and in many cases continue to do chores in their barns at the same time. They know that having young children in barns and out in the fields is unsafe and unwise.
We hope our government officials will see the unique needs for child care that Ontario farm families face and find innovative ways of channelling the necessary funding to meet those needs.
~Bette Jean Crews~
Ontario Federation of Agriculture Executive Committee