The City of Ottawa says it will once again offer day camps for children affected by one-day school closures this coming Wednesday.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) announced last week that high school teachers and education workers in more than a dozen school boards are set to walk off the job on Jan. 15, unless the Ontario government takes class size increases off the negotiating table.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) is among the 16 school boards that will be affected by the scheduled job action on Wednesday.
All OCDSB elementary and secondary schools will close their doors on Wednesday, the school board says. The OSSTF represents staff who work in both Ottawa’s elementary and high schools.
The one-day strike will also affect a number of Ottawa-area schools with the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario and the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est.
Wednesday will mark the second strike in six weeks affecting all OCDSB schools. They closed once before for a one-day, province-wide walkout in early December.
The public high school teachers’ union has been organizing rotating one-day strikes since.
The day camp programs offered by the City of Ottawa are for children between 4 and 12 years old and will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Jan. 15.
The municipality says parents can register their children for the camps online or in person at City of Ottawa recreation facilities and client service centres. A family PIN and client barcode are required for registration, the city says.
The camps cost of $40 per day and will be offered at the following locations, according to the city:
English day camps:
- Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex – Orléans
- St-Laurent Complex
- Hintonburg Community Centre
- Greenboro Community Centre
- Rideauview Community Centre
- Walter Baker Sports Centre
- Richcraft Recreation Complex – Kanata
- CARDELREC Recreation Complex (Goulbourn)
- Kanata Recreation Complex
- Sawmill Creek Community Centre
- Greely Community Centre
- Manotick Community Centre
French day camps:
- Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex – Orléans
- St-Laurent Complex
- Sandy Hill Community Centre
The city says child care before and after the day camps will be available at an additional cost, from 7:30 to 8 a.m. and from 5 to 5:30 p.m. at these facilities:
- Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex – Orléans
- St-Laurent Complex
- Greenboro Community Centre
—With a file from The Canadian Press