Daycare: another reason that Rob Ford’s adversarial relationship with the premier is bad news
More bad news for anyone relying on daycare, courtesy of the Toronto Star: provincial cash might be the only thing that could prevent massive daycare closures (closures that would hit poorer neighbourhoods particularly hard). This is troubling but not particularly shocking news, since the city has already warned Queen’s Park that it needs more money to fund daycare spaces and subsidies. The advent of all-day kindergarten for four and five-year-olds in 2014 makes matters worse—fewer kids in daycare might mean less strain on the system, but it also means less revenue. As with many other problems facing Toronto, it will probably result in us lobbying the province for more dough. We just hope Dalton McGuinty has forgotten about the time our mayor threatened to run him out of office. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
In the long term – fewer kids in day care results in fewer day care spots, and longer distances between day care spots. The extra burden placed on parents who have to travel further, will be offset by the reduced burden of not having to place your kid in a day care for a half day – because they’re in Kindergarten. I think kids in day care have a lower adult to kid ratio than kids in Kindergarten, so it’ll be a net benefit (economically) to society, (notwithstanding the detriments of a higher student to adult ratio, and the loss of jobs to day care workers).