My question is to the Minister of Education. Today is Child Care Worker and Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day, and the stakeholders and ECEs are here today, but I’ve not been hearing that they’re actually feeling valued.

For over a year, we’ve been raising alarm bells that the workforce crisis threatens child care in this province. Early childhood educators are leaving the field faster than they can be trained.

Back in January, the ministry held consultations on a child care workforce strategy, yet the sector is still waiting for the province’s plan. Meanwhile, local child care programs are forced to close rooms and limit enrolment at a time when more parents are hoping to gain access to affordable child care spaces. When will this government release their report and actually act on the recommendations in that report?

The Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario and experts and workers have told the government that a $10-a-day child care program is under threat because of low pay and poor working conditions, with the average ECE in the field for just three years. The minister’s own summaries on the consultation showed the government was overwhelmingly told variations of “increase ECE pay.”

Ontario is one of the four provinces that still has not introduced a salary scale or a wage grid as part of the Canada-wide early years and child care plan—and the wage floor is the lowest in the country.

The minister promised ECEs a wage increase in June—yet months later, no word.

Will the minister commit today to a salary scale of at least $30 per hour for RECEs, $25 for non-RECEs, to get the program back on track and get parents the affordable child care spots they need and deserve so parents can get back to work?