Why a shortage of workers threatens $10/day child care

From what I see it also is an incredibly ageist field so I would not recommend anybody go into it. My friend is an ECE for 15 years, just turned 40 and went back to take some more courses. She can't find anything but the lowest junior position when there supposedly is this huge shortage. All of them want to work in schools and it is hard to get those jobs. You are seen as a grandma worker.

just like how healthcare is 'free" except there is not enough underpaid staff to provide free service.

Low wages in ultra high cost of living markets. So we'll create even more pressure by subsidizing spots to drive up demand for a service that can't be staffed. Great.

Why do I think the answer to this and every other service shortage is just going to be "immigrants"?

The Trudeau government is promising to give all families in Canada access to high quality child care at an average price of $10 per day. Its plan calls for creating 250,000 new child-care spots by 2026.

But the shortage of people willing to work in the system is putting that plan in significant jeopardy, says Carolyn Ferns, policy coordinator at the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care.

"It's the worst workforce crisis child care has ever faced," said Ferns in an interview.

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While pandemic disruption of the labour market is a factor, child-care advocates say the root causes involve poor wages and benefits, giving workers little incentive to stay in the sector.

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The biggest provider of child care in the Toronto region, the YMCA, has so few staff that it currently has just 16,000 kids enrolled in its 35,000 licensed spaces.

"That means 19,000 kids and families that don't get access to care," said Jamison Steeve, chief strategy officer for the YMCA of Greater Toronto. "Our wait lists, it's not a point of lack of spaces, lack of capital, it's lack of people to provide the care."

The YMCA needs about 1,400 workers to get back to its pre-pandemic capacity in child care, said Steeve, and would need hundreds more staff beyond that to expand to meet the expected increase in demand for the $10-a-day program.

Only solution is closing the wage gap, or crashing the market. We’ve moved away from “working class” neighbourhoods, the entry point for a house is 1 million dollars in the GTA. And that has had a trickle down effect to rental condos and apartments.

Maybe some immigrants or TfW will fill the role if we're not going to make the occupation have a livable wage.