WATCH ABOVE: Alan Carter explains why accessing childcare is a growing problem in Toronto and Canada.
TORONTO – A vice president at George Brown College says the school is choosing not to help parents raise money in an effort to keep a downtown childcare center open because they don’t think the parents will be able to meet their $2.5 million goal.
“I personally think it would be fairly difficult to satisfy the fairly large requirements of the landlord through parental fundraising,” Mark Nesbitt, the VP of communications at the college said.
“I think we’re afraid of creating unrealistic expectations, that in asking for donations, we may not in any way be able to follow through in what they want.”
The parents are hoping to raise $2.5 million to keep the doors of the non-profit daycare at Scotia Place open. But without help from the college, organizers are unable to issue tax receipts.
“And there are a whole bunch of families who receive a subsidy from the city who cannot afford for-profit options because the city does not subsidize for-profit daycare,” Ian Cooper, an entertainment and technology lawyer who has two kids at the daycare, said. “So they will be without childcare options in the core unless another George Brown center will be able to pick up the slack.”
The George Brown College-run non-profit had been operating on a 25-year rent-free lease given to them so the building’s developer could add more floors. That lease ran out last June and exposes a lack of affordable childcare spaces in downtown Toronto.
“It’s a pressure point for the city,” Nesbitt said. “We are in constant conversation with the city on new developments and opportunities to open daycares in those and we’re very eager to grow our footprint in the downtown core.”
Nesbitt pointed out the city the city now signs 100-year lease agreements instead of the old 25 year agreement.
The daycare had been close to shutting its doors last year when its lease expired but the developer gave them another year to allow parents to find alternate arrangements.
“There are people who are working in these buildings who commute in from all over the place, often by public transit, they’re not driving and parking their cars in an underground lot. And they need to take their kids somewhere while they’re working in these buildings.”
Cooper estimated the fundraiser would have to raise roughly $2.5 million to keep the daycare alive but only with the help of George Brown College. Which, right now, isn’t happening.
“We’re not in control of it,” Nesbitt said. “The landlord made a decision to go in another direction and has, in our understanding, has entered into a lease arrangement with a for-profit operator and that’s not ours to control.”
George Brown College operates nine other daycares in the city and is trying to increase space in those to house the 70 kids displaced when the Scotia Place centre closes.
Carolyn Ferns, a public policy coordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare lamented the closing of the downtown daycare spaces, saying the demand for high-quality childcare is growing in the core.
“I think it’s a big problem really. Not for profit childcare centres are some of the highest quality centres that we have and they serve a vital purpose and especially in downtown Toronto, there just aren’t enough of them,” she said. “I think it’s very sad to see it lost.”
Daycare is expected to be a big issue in the upcoming federal election as the NDP, currently forming the official opposition, has proposed a $15-a-day national childcare plan.
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said in October that his party would spend $5 billion a year to create a million more daycare spaces.
– With files from Alan Carter
- Alberta to overhaul municipal rules to include sweeping new powers, municipal political parties
- Canada, U.S., U.K. lay additional sanctions on Iran over attack on Israel
- No more ‘bonjour-hi’? Montreal mayor calls for French only greetings
- Trudeau says ‘good luck’ to Saskatchewan premier in carbon price spat
Comments