QUEENS PARK – Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce is doing a press conference this morning at 11:00 am EST.
Lecce says, “We are announcing an extension of the emergency program of free daycare and other supports for frontline workers”.
The program the Education Minister says will be expanded to include vital workers from Canada Border Security employees.
Free Childcare has a capacity of 28,000 and will be expanded.
Lecce is announcing parents can apply for funding on Monday for parents of students. He says it will take about two weeks for the funding to come through.
NDP Education critic Marit Stiles (Davenport) and NDP Child Care critic Doly Begum (Scarborough Southwest) released the following statement in response to Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s Saturday morning press conference:
“It’s desperately frustrating for parents that Stephen Lecce got in front of the cameras, and didn’t announce a single measure to make schools safe to re-open. This government doesn’t want to invest in schools, and that’s putting our kids health and their education at risk.
The Ontario NDP continues to fight for a much bigger, broader in-school asymptomatic testing program, a class cap of 15, urgent ventilation improvements, and paid sick and family-care leave for all parents so they can afford to stay home with their kid if they’re worried about a cough or potential exposure to the virus, rather than sending them to school or day care.
Along with all frontline workers, the early childhood educators who are caring for the children of essential workers deserve pandemic pay.”
On Monday www.ontario.ca will open the funding opportunity for parents for children not able to attend school.
Today, Ontario is reporting reporting 3,443 new cases of COVID-19.
1,070 new cases are reported in Toronto, 548 in Peel Region, 303 in York Region, 282 in Windsor-Essex County and 179 in Ottawa.
