With a provincial election just over two months away, Ann Hoggarth was letting her constituents know what the Liberal government is planning on doing to help out families who need a hand.
MPP for Barrie Ann Hoggarth held a Budget Breakfast at her 20 Bell Farm Road constituency office this morning and met face-to-face with those who wanted to hear more about the provincial government’s 2018 budget. The budget, which was released last Thursday, highlights many initiatives that the Liberal government promises to help out more including the Senior’s Healthy Home Program, the Ontario Drug and Dental Program, improving hospital access and wait times and more.
While the news released last week was explained in-depth, Hoggarth was excited to hold the quiet gathering at her office so as to allow the people most affected by the budget have a chance to speak on it to someone who will listen.
“When we hear things in the media it is usually just a snippet,” said Hoggarth. “Usually the stakeholders have more in-depth questions about their area of expertise so it’s very important that we get together and if they have questions that I can’t answer, then we have to be able to get the answers to the questions and pass them on.”
After her early morning breakfast it was off to the EARLYON Child and Family Centre on Ferris Lane to speak on the $2.2 billion investment Ontario will make over the next three years to expand to affordable child care for families in the region and province. The investment, which begins in 2020, is intended to help families facing financial struggles as well as provide free licensed child care for kids aged two and a half until they reach kindergarten.
“As a teacher, I saw the benefits that children and families experienced when our government introduced full day kindergarten back in 2010,” said Hoggarth in a statement. “Parents saw significant savings, and children received better early education. I am proud that our government has once again made this significant investment in families and young children.”
Some of the significant notes from today’s announcement was the plan to include free prescription drugs for anyone 25 and 65 or over, free tuition thousands of students the inclusion of better working conditions with higher minimum wage. Other points included:
- Ontario is making an overall new investment of $2.2 billion over three years in child care, which includes over $930 million in 2020-21 to make licensed preschool child care free for kids from the age of 2.5 until they are eligible for kindergarten, beginning in September 2020.
- As part of the overall investment, Ontario is increasing operating funding across the child care system by an additional $165 million over three years to increase access to licensed child care, support fee reductions, and reduce or eliminate fee-subsidy waitlists.
- This investment includes $90 million in 2018-19 to support continued expansion of child care for children ages 0 to 4 years, including $53 million to create approximately 4,200 fee subsidies and $26 million to establish base funding for home child care.
- A two year, $30 million innovation fund will seek solutions to chronic issues in child care, including ways to extend child care hours to ease anxiety and stress for parents who work long hours, shifts or are in precarious work situations.
- Making child care more affordable and accessible was one of the key recommendations from the Gender Wage Gap Steering Committee’s final report. This supports Ontario’s Strategy for Women’s Economic Empowerment that will help close the wage gap between men and women.
- Since 2012–13, the number of licensed child care spaces in Ontario has grown to more than 406,000 — a 38 per cent increase.
- As of September 1, 2016, licensed child care centres and home child care agencies may no longer charge parents fees to have their child placed on a wait list.
