The NDP critic for Education, Doly Begum, quietly introduced Bill 45, the Child Care and Early Years Amendment Act (Not-for-Profit Corporations), 2018 on October 17, 2018. This Bill, if passed, would amend the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 such that for-profit corporations would be ineligible to receive government funding for child care and early years programs and services.
Though neither the NDP or Ms. Begum has commented on the bill, it is likely that it is intended to be a direct response to the news in August 2018 that Ministry of Education had removed the For-Profit Maximum Threshold, which had limited provincial funding for corporate and for-profit child care operators. During question period in the Ontario Legislature on September 19, Ms. Begum challenged the PC Government on their decision to remove the cap when not-for-profit child care offers higher standards of care for children and better wages for workers. Honorable Lisa M. Thompson, the Minister of Education, responded that the elimination of the cap was intended to expand child care choices in the province.
The full text of Bill 45 can be found here.
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