Why training more child-care workers isn't enough to solve the staffing crisis

The shortage of early childhood educators(ECEs) that threatens Canada's $10-a-day child-care program cannot be solved simply by expanding training opportunities, according to a range of people working in the sector.

Child-care centres across the country are so short-staffed now that they are turning away parents looking for spots.

The situation is raising questions about the viability of the federal government's plan to add 250,000 new child-care spaces by 2026, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's national program is meant to be in full swing.

Advocates for child-care workers say improving pay and working conditions is the most crucial ingredient in tackling what some are calling a staffing crisis.

"While we have billions of dollars going to provinces and to municipalities for child care, the child-care workers who are delivering these programs, they haven't seen anything," said Jess Tomas, a community organizer for the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario.

In its agreement with the federal government for the child-care program, Ontario set the wage floor for early childhood educators at $18 an hour.

"One of my colleagues described it as a slap in the face and I think that's pretty accurate," Tomas said in an interview.

Average ECEleaves sector after 3 years: regulator

Becoming a registered ECE requires at least two years of post-secondary education, with training in child development. However, compensation has lagged behind that of other sectors that also require a post-secondary diploma because the work of child care is not valued, according to advocates.

"We are not babysitters," said Maxine Chodorowicz, a registered ECE and supervisor of child care at the West End YMCA in Toronto.

ECEs "do so much more than just arts and crafts and playing games all day," said Chodorowicz in an interview.

"They really are teachers, and they are using play as a tool to teach young children and help them reach their full potential."

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Child-care centres across the country are so short-staffed that they have serious doubts that the national $10/day child-care program's expansion plans will be viable.

Data fromthe College of Early Childhood Educators, the provincial regulatory body, shows the profession is overwhelmingly female-dominated, with women making up 98 per cent of registered ECEs in Ontario.

The average ECE in the province spends just three years working in child care, according to the regulator.

That's proof the staffing crisis is much less about recruiting new child-care workers to the sector than about retaining those who join it, said Carolyn Ferns, policy coordinator at the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care.

"I hear governments time and again saying, 'What's an innovative strategy we could do, could we do a new training strategy?'"said Ferns.

"But until we deal with the low wages in the sector, none of those other strategies are going to work."

The challenges of retaining staff in the child-care sector are particularly acute in Ontario, where school boards hire early childhood educators to work in the province's full-day kindergarten system, almost always with better wages and benefits than daycare operators provide.

"We're going to build this new child-care system, but we can't do that on the backs of child-care workers," said Ferns.

"We can't expect them to continue to be so terribly underpaid."

It's far from clear that either the provincial or federal government has a plan that will attract and retain enough staff to meet the demand for child care.

Ontario will be short 8,500 ECEs by 2026: province

The provincial government's own forecasts suggest Ontario will be short 8,500 ECEs in 2026 without further steps to address recruitment and retention, according to documents obtained by The Canadian Press.

CBC Toronto asked Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce what solutions the province is implementingto address the shortage of child-care staff.

Lecce responded by pointing to the expansion of a dual-credit program that will allow some 400 secondary school students each year to train as ECEs at the same time as earning their high school diploma.

"We are acting on our plan to expand the amount of early childhood educators within our child-care settings," Lecce said.

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Child care providers are desperately searching for staff. That's prompting concern that the $10/day child-care program won't be available to all parents who will want it.

Karina Gould, the federal minister for families, children and social development,said the child-care workforce will be the main topic on the agenda when she meets provincial and territorial counterparts this summer.

"This is something that every jurisdiction in Canada is grappling with," Gould said Monday at a news conference in Oakville, Ont.

"We cannot achieve our objectives if we do not have a talented, well qualified, caring and well-compensated work force."

Governments should subsidize ECE wages, fund benefits: YMCA

The YMCA of Greater Toronto, the largest non-profit provider of child care in the region, is asking the provincial and federal governments to subsidize ECE wages and create a fully funded pension and benefits plan as part of creating the national child-care system.

"Finding ways to value the profession is important," said Jamison Steeve, chief strategy officer for the YMCA of Greater Toronto.

"We want to value the work."

Tobuild a national child-care program, it's of "paramount importance" to have staff who are qualified, to pay them decent wages and provide good working conditions, said Martha Friendly,executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, a policy think-tank in Toronto.

"You can't have quality child care unless you havetrained early childhood educators," Friendly said in an interview.

"It is going to take money to increase salaries and provide benefits. It is not something that you can just sort of snap your fingers and do."

Kryzya Barrameda, who works as an ECE at a school-based childcare centre in Toronto's west end, said she has a passion for her work but wonders if she really has a future in the sector.

"I enjoy working with the children and families," said Barrameda in an interview between her split shifts.

"It's really devastating that we are paid below what we should be paid for the work that we actually do."