Mammoliti wants province to take over city daycares: reports
Posted July 4, 2012 1:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti is set to release a report Thursday calling on the province to take control of city childcare centres, passing on the financial responsibility.
Last July, Mayor Rob Ford appointed Mammoliti as chair of a childcare task force aimed at finding alternative funding solutions as the city tried to balance its books. The task force was borne out of the cost-cutting recommendations floated by city consultant KPMG last summer.
According to the Toronto Sun and Toronto Star, Mammoliti wants childcare for children under the age of three to be covered by the Ministry of Education, similar to the province’s all-day kindergarten program that has early childhood educators working in schools.
Mammoliti wasn’t available for comment on the reports.
In last summer’s controversial KPMG Core Services Review, the consultant suggested the city phase out some 2,000 subsidized childcare spaces the province no longer funds.
A city report released last fall called on the province to pony up $74 million to save those 2,000 spaces from closure — $27 million in transitional funding after the implementation of all-day kindergarten, $13.9 million for child care funding in schools, $13.5 million to reconfigure child care centres outside schools for younger kids and $20 million to maintain existing service levels of 24,000 child care subsidies.
The child care task force is expected to release a list of recommendations Thursday. It’s expected to include recommendations proposing private-public partnerships for daycares.
