Item - 2015.CD3.3

City Council request the General Manager of Children’s Services to develop a multi-year growth strategy for the City of Toronto child care system that would:

a. meet the needs of Toronto families that are working or attending school;
 

b. be consistent with the Service Plan principles of achieving greater access, quality, equity and affordability; and

c. include responsibilities and investment scenarios that include three orders of government; with any additional resources required for this study to be accommodated within the approved Children’s Services 2015 budget.

That: 

1.  The General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation report to the Community Development and Recreation Committee on:

a. the current status of After School Recreation and Care (ARC), including existing and future provincial cost sharing aspects; current costs and roll out plans; and

b. the status and potential roll out of the Community Leadership After-School Programs.

2.  The General Manager, Children's Services report to the Community Development and Recreation Committee on the current status of the licensed home care option funded by the City of Toronto, including number of spaces, degrees of subsidy and future expansion.

That the Draft Children's Service Plan 2015 - 2019 be amended on Page 14 - Section A - A Toronto for All Children and Families, Subsection Titled "Guiding Principles", by deleting the words "through public and non-profit service delivery" in principle h, so that it now reads:

"h. Focused on expansion"

That the Draft Children's Service Plan 2015 - 2019 be amended on Page 23 Section B - The Changing Landscape, Subsection titled "Broader Social Context" by replacing the paragraph under the column titled "National Child Care Initiatives" with the following:

"Negotiations over the years between the federal government and provincial and territorial governments to craft a national day care strategy have not produced agreement. Lacking a national consensus, the Federal Government has elected to provide families with young children direct payments. The Universal Child Care Benefit provides $100 per month for each child under the age of six. This amount will increase to $160 if the Federal 2015 Budget is approved. The government also proposes to provide $60 per month for children aged six through 17. These direct supports for children and child care represent an important financial commitment which should be considered when developing multi-year child care service plans.

Access to affordable, safe and high quality child care must remain a public policy imperative for all levels of government."

That the Draft Children's Service Plan 2015 - 2019 on Page 27, Section C - The Current Service Sector, Subsection titled, "Funding the System" be amended to include actual dollar amounts.

That where appropriate and as determined by the General Manager, Children's Services, the term "licensed and regulated child care" be used in Section C - The Current Service Sector, Subsection titled "Determining Child Care Demand and Growth" on Page 28 of Attachment 1 - the Draft Children's Service Plan 2015 - 2019.

That Section C - The Current Service Sector, Subsection titled, "Financial Implications of Growth" on Page 29 indicate both the cost for Early Years Service and the cost for School Aged Service.

That Section C - The Current Service Sector, Subsection, titled "Middle Childhood Programs" on Page 35 of Attachment 1 be further revised to place a greater focus on options (including specific options) to meet the middle childhood niche.

That the Draft Children's Service Plan 2015 - 2019 be amended on Page 56 - by deleting "a strategy" from Action 1 and replacing it with "strategies" so that Action 1 now reads:

"1. Engage federal and provincial governments in the development and implementation of strategies to facilitate growth in the child care system, including increasing child care fee subsidies in order to incrementally address the waitlist for a subsidy."

That the Draft Children's Service Plan 2015 - 2019 be amended as follows on Page 56 by deleting the words "public and non-profit" in Action 3, so that it now reads:

"3. Increase the number of child care spaces for infants and toddlers, with a target of 1,500 spaces, focused in wards where there are insufficient spaces for families receiving fee subsidies."

That the Draft Children's Service Plan 2015 - 2019 be amended on Page 57 by deleting the last two bullets in Action 9 which read as follows:

"- Reducing intergenerational poverty

- Improving workforce compensation in the child care sector, to the extent possible"

That the Draft Children's Service Plan 2015 - 2019 be amended on Page 60 by deleting the words "public and non-profit" and replacing the word "sectors" with the word "sector" in Action 37, so that it now reads:

"37. Continue to invest in the growth of the child care sector."

That the Draft Children's Service Plan 2015 - 2019 be amended by adding a new Action 38 to read:

"38. Work with the Province to update eligibility criteria for child care subsidy."