East end families must be proactive on child care or lose spots. Back in 2009, children at Leslieville's Woodfield Child Care Centre were shown how to use the new KidSmart computer stations thanks to a special partnership between WoodGreen Community Services, the United Way of Greater Toronto and IBM's KidSmart Early Learning Program. Courtesy/WOODGREEN COMMUNITY SER Related Stories  Library patrons look beyond books in East York
EAST YORK - On a sunny Tuesday in the community room of the Leaside library, 25 children sit and listen to...

Subsidized child care critical to parents, providers
Having access to affordable quality childcare is a "very essential service", said Elaine Levy, director of children's services at WoodGreen Community Services.
"Most of our families need the child care as a support so the parents can go back to work, back to school," she said, adding a positive learning environment is also essential for kids.

"We have very inclusive and multicultural centres. It's really a great early learning experience for the children."

The east-end social service agency runs eight licensed day care centres for more than 700 infants to school-aged children.

WoodGreen's centres are among 650 across Toronto that have a purchase of service agreement with the City of Toronto, meaning they're eligible to receive child care fee subsidies that assist families with the cost of child care.

The city operates 55 child care centres in Toronto with space for 2,849 children; the majority of who receive subsidies. Across the board there are 24,000 fee subsidies. An additional 20,000 children are on a waiting list to receive assistance.

As part of its Core Service Review, the city has retained management consulting firm KPMG to look at ways to save money.

One of those options is to cut 2,700 fee subsidy spaces for child care.

Locally, 49 of the 441 spots in Ward 30 (Toronto-Danforth) and 37 of the 325 spaces in Ward 32 (Beaches-East York) could be eliminated.

KPMG has also suggested the city sell off its municipal child care centres as well as cut its quality inspection system, eliminate payments to community-based child care centres for subsidized children and cut the funding for family resource programs, pay equity as well as payments the city makes to school boards to rent child care facilities.

City council will debate KPMG's proposals in September and vote on them in the 2012 budget vote early next year.

"Any cuts to the system really hurt. It doesn't make sense as a move," said Levy, pointing to the many trickle-down effects.

"If parents can't afford child care, they can't contribute to society. In the childcare sector, if spaces are cut people also lose jobs."

Levy said if anything the number of subsidies should be increased.

"There should be absolutely no cuts to subsidies. It really is such an essential service, not just in this community, but in every community."

Eastwood village area resident Michelle Pistano thought she was being proactive when she applied for a child care space and a city subsidy when she was just 15 weeks pregnant with her daughter.

But like many in Toronto, Pistano was still waiting when the time came for her to return to work in September 2010. Pistano wasn't too worried as her job had her come back just two days a week so she found a space in a woman's home.

However, her sense of calm quickly disappeared.

"It was awful. I didn't leave her there very long," she said. "I didn't like the feeling I had when I left her."

The single mother found help from a family member and then did what she hadn't ever wanted to do - she went on Ontario Works.

It turned out to be the right decision because shortly after, she had her subsidy in place and a spot in a city-run child care facility in East York so she could return to school in January 2011 without worrying about her 22-month-old daughter, Jaliyah.

"I was ecstatic. She enjoys going there everyday. I know she's well taken care of," she said of her spot at the municipal facility. "It was a relief. My mind was completely at ease."

The worry, stress and frustration Pistano experienced is common in so many families in the city as the waiting list for a child care subsidy has grown from 3,500 in 2005 to more than 20,000 currently.

The funding available provides 24,000 child care fee subsidies, which is only enough to support 28 per cent of Toronto's low-income children.

"It's unfair. It's stressful. It can cause people to not want to work," Pistano said of the current child care situation.

"How I felt when I left her with that woman was disheartening."

Sarah Rogers, a Toronto laywer, and her filmmaker husband put their unborn daughter on the waiting list at three child care centres the week they found out they were expecting.

"I have a colleague, who even though she took an extended maternity leave, upon coming back to work still didn't have a child care space she was comfortable with," Rogers said.

While Rogers and her husband, who live in Leslieville, are better off financially than those on the subsidy waiting list, she said affordability is still an issue.

One of the centres they're waiting on costs $2,000 a month for an infant space while another is $1,800.

"Even though I am a lawyer, it is a tremendous amount of money," she said, adding it's more than the mortgage on their home near Pape Avenue and Gerrard Street East.

"I heard it was in the $1,000 to $1,200 range. I had no idea it was going to cost that much."

If a child care space doesn't come through when Rogers is ready to return to work, her husband may stay home with their daughter for six months or a year. (Child care spaces for toddlers are 10 to 15 per cent lower).

"At this point there is already a shortage of regulated child care spaces so any cuts would make it worse. If families like us are struggling, I can't imagine what those who have less are going through."

Repeated attempts by TCN staff to obtain comment from City staff went unanswered.

- with files from Danielle Milley