Proposed changes to the DNA in Ontario

[eoinsmom]

I had no idea this all was going on in Ontario, but it's very interesting. I'll be watching to see what happens....I'm in Alberta and things seem to follow closely at times. I was with an agency, and now have left and been private for over a year. I took all my families with me, and they have all commented that they prefer me as a private business as opposed to their dealings with the agency. For example, one parent found them difficult around year end receipts - the agency said that they would not mail them out and parents had to pick up receipts at the office, which is only open 8-5....umm, parents all work during that time, that's why they use a dayhome! I also personally had some issues with the ridiculous rules the agency had in place around some of the home check items when they did their monthly visits, this ultimately led to me leaving the agency....and agency officials emailed all the parents telling them they would be better off staying with an "approved" caregiver rather than staying with me! IMO, being "approved" by an agency doesn't make you any better of a caregiver, I am a well educated adult who has chosen to run her own business. Providing quality care to children is not my only job, I also complete home assessments for individuals who wish to adopt, foster or provide other care to children. I maintain membership with the Alberta College of Social Workers, pay my fees, complete my continuing education....I would do all of that with my dayhome business as well if that was an option. But, I will not go back to an agency; they took $65 per child per month off my fees, and I got nothing out of the arrangement during my year with them - I advertised on my own and found all my own families, all of whom are still with me three years later. The only restriction we have as a private dayhome here in Alberta is that we can have six children in our care plus our own. This has not been an issue for me, however if they were to start putting in the age/ratio restrictions it would cause some havoc. Personally, I find it quite manageable to provide care to my group of 2 one year olds, 2 two year olds, and two three year olds; but this would not fly at all under agency restrictions.

[Momof4]

This entire subject makes me so upset. I pay close attention to it and will be happy to respond to the government and I'm sure my current families will respond as well if there is a form to complete. However, I am a renter and my home is an apartment in a century old home so I know it would never pass the requirements for an agency.

I can charge lower rates because my rent is low but if I'm forced to move to a more expensive, up to date apartment to stay in business my rates will have to go up. As people already pointed out, ALL of our rates will have to go up but some of us may be out of business if we remain in our current homes. I HATE the word BABYSITTER but some very smart person pointed out that if that's what we call ourselves we can get around the technicalities of running a quality home daycare. How sad is that? Very sad!

[sunnydays]

This entire subject makes me so upset. I pay close attention to it and will be happy to respond to the government and I'm sure my current families will respond as well if there is a form to complete. However, I am a renter and my home is an apartment in a century old home so I know it would never pass the requirements for an agency.

I can charge lower rates because my rent is low but if I'm forced to move to a more expensive, up to date apartment to stay in business my rates will have to go up. As people already pointed out, ALL of our rates will have to go up but some of us may be out of business if we remain in our current homes. I HATE the word BABYSITTER but some very smart person pointed out that if that's what we call ourselves we can get around the technicalities of running a quality home daycare. How sad is that? Very sad!

Well, I know I could pass all the requirements to be with an agency, but I am in the opposite boat as you...we move last year to a bigger house and I cannot afford to charge less or I won't be able to pay my mortgage. If I have to go through an agency I will not be able to keep my daycare running as I don't think I could start feedin the kids Kraft dinner and stop buying any materials or supplies for my daycare (I buy something almost every weekend for my daycare...whether it be art supplies, toys, books, etc). When I started out 2.5 years ago, I looked into going with an agency and they were going to pay me $33 per day per child and I would have to follow their 2 under two and 3 under three rule and my own kids would count in the 5 total kids. Well that is more than $10 a day less per child and I would only be able to have three kids (2 kids if the 4 total idea goes through). There is no way I can survive on that!
As for the babysitter idea..I still don't think that would work as a way to bypass the new rules. I think the rules will apply to anyone providing care in their own home. A babysitter usually goes to the kids' home.

[Momof4]

I'm sure the wheels of change will continue to move slowly and hopefully it will be many years before any of this comes to fruition, but the more we pay attention and make our opinions known the better. Thanks very much to all of you who were able to go out to a meeting and speak intelligently about quality home daycare providers.

Sunnydays, I know what you are saying. I buy organically grown foods to fee the daycare children. It's important to me to feed the children very well and that's my biggest daycare cost.

[briar_rose]

How would this work with townhouses? I thought that to be licensed you had to have a large house to have the maximum number of kids? I guess I'm just wondering if I can have less kids than the 4 (plus my own right) because I have a smaller house. This stuff is upsetting because I think if you try to raise your rates from $40/day to $50/day then people are just going to try to move to a centre because that's not far off from a centre price.

[Lou]

How can we follow this? Is there a website with updates, etc?

[sunnydays]

How would this work with townhouses? I thought that to be licensed you had to have a large house to have the maximum number of kids? I guess I'm just wondering if I can have less kids than the 4 (plus my own right) because I have a smaller house. This stuff is upsetting because I think if you try to raise your rates from $40/day to $50/day then people are just going to try to move to a centre because that's not far off from a centre price.

So far they are not proposing that we be licensed individually, but rather be forced to work with a licensed agency. If I am not mistaken, you already work with an agency, so there would not be a huge change for you as agencies don't have a space size requirement (at least not that I know of). The proposal was that private caregivers only be allowed 4 including their own while those working with an agency could have 7.

[sunnydays]

How can we follow this? Is there a website with updates, etc?

I wish there was something so simple! I will definitely post again if CCPRN sends out any new information, but that is the only way I am getting this info. Maybe someone else knows of a more direct source of info? I haven't checked the Ministry of Education website...I don't know if there is anything about it on there.

[Lou]

Thank you for posting the info, much appreciated!!!

[daycaremom9]

I'm located in the Lower Mainland of B.C. I went to a meeting last year presented by the Early Childhood Educators of B.C. They are advocating publicly funded daycare at a cost of $1.5 billion annually. I don't know if parents realize that means their taxes would be going up considerably. This group was trying to convince us ( mostly home licensed daycare operators) that our hourly wage would go up considerably and that we would become well respected childhood educators. I don't believe that this will come to fruition due to the immense money that would be required to operate such a system. Our local school cannot even afford playground equipment! Do any other provinces operate a similar set-up? If so, what kind of repercussions have developed from it?