Victoria Dixon, a 26-year-old Brantford accountant and new mom, is looking to change the way she works so she can afford daycare for her baby daughter when her maternity leave ends.
Provinces have been signing National Child Care agreements with the federal government to establish $10-a-day daycare. Except for Dixon’s home province of Ontario.
“I will be paying $54 a day for the daycare I am sending my daughter to in the spring, and honestly I am doing everything I can to try and find remote work or another avenue so I don’t have to send her every day,” she said.
Dixon could be paying over $10,000 a year in daycare fees if she were to work outside of the home for five days a week.
One non-profit that’s been calling for a daycare deal is the Young Women’s Christian Association of Canada (YWCA) Toronto, which has been submitting requests for support for its initiatives at annual budget consultations since 2016, and has nothing to show for the efforts.
YWCA is urging the Ontario government to participate in the federal plan as stated in its 2022 submission, because it would lower expenses for parents and give women the opportunity to participate in the labour market on a more equal footing.
The government created the budget consultations to get opinions and input from the public and use them to shape the annual budget.
Some organizations have managed to see their input reflected in the annual budget, but others have gone year after year fighting for important issues and not seeing any support from the government.
The YWCA Toronto, which supports women and girls, released a document entitled Women Deserve Better from Ontario outlining its presentation to the Ontario Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs.
In its written submission, the YWCA says it’s pushing for better and affordable housing, lifting women out of poverty and creating jobs for women. And that includes affordable daycare.
“YWCA has been placing submissions year after year since 2016 and often times we don’t see the things women and girls need reflected in the budget plan for Ontario,” said Jasmine Rezaee, the director of Advocacy and Communications at YWCA Toronto.
Catherine Fife, opposition critic of the Finance and Treasury Board, said calls to action from the non-profit sector have been ignored while those who are able to make generous donations to the elected party hold a special place in budget meetings for their voices to be heard.
As a member of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, she has heard a number of deputations on the housing crisis and how long it has been impacting Ontarians.
“We are yet to see what the new housing plan has in store, but it has been frustrating to watch successive Liberal and PC governments ignore the return on investment for a progressive housing strategy,” the Waterloo NDP MPP said.
Fife said people have lost hope and the groups that are coming in for the consultations are decreasing.
“At this stage in the game, after 10 years, there are many groups that feel that this is just a going through the motions exercise, which undermines the democratic process,” she said.