Following extensive consultation with Early Childhood Educators, child care workers and sector experts, the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario and the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care are releasing a new publication on one of the most pressing issues holding back the successful building of the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care System (CWELCC) in Ontario: the child care workforce crisis.

In this position paper and accompanying policy brief we describe the root causes of the current crisis and recommend a publicly funded salary scale of at least $30-$40 per hour for RECEs and at least $25 per hour for non-RECE staff as part of a comprehensive workforce strategy and compensation framework.

Read the position paper and policy brief

The AECEO’s Building Leadership and Learning Communities project aims to strengthen the ECE workforce by connecting, supporting, and empowering Early Childhood Educators and Child Care Workers. The project recently completed its second year in June 2023. An external evaluation team used surveys, focus groups, and individual interviews to determine the impact of the project and whether the project was meeting its outlined goals successfully. Their results are shared in this Evaluation Report which outlines the work of the project; creating and supporting AECEO Communities of Practice, and developing and implementing a new Professional Learning model that centers the educator and their experience. If you have any questions about this project, please contact Amber Straker, Project Coordinator, at [email protected].

The AECEO has shared a statement on Child Protection and the role of ECEs. The statement discusses a previous publication, A
Child In Need of Protection and relevant current information regarding BIPOC children in care. The statement also includes resources related to the idea of ‘cultural safety’, suggestions for further reading with books that embrace a critical lens in child protection work, and links to organizations working in this area in Ontario. Finally, the statement includes three points of refection, with questions to guide educators and allied professionals in their thinking.

Find the full statement here.

Written Submission to: 

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities regarding Bill C 35, An Act respecting early learning and child care in Canada.

From: Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, submitted March 17 2023

The Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) is the professional association for Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) in Ontario. We support ECEs in their professional practice and support the recognition and appropriate compensation of the profession. Our members work throughout Ontario in programs for young children and their families, including regulated home and centre-based child care, full-day kindergarten, family resource programs and support services for children with disabilities, among others. 

The AECEO has long called for a publicly funded, high quality, universal child care system in Ontario, and across Canada – one that is affordable for all families and that ensures professional pay and decent work for the early childhood workforce. We welcomed the federal government’s commitment in Budget 2021 to build a Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system, and strongly support a legislative framework that ensures publicly funded, high quality and accessible child care is available to all Canadians for many years to come.

 Since 1950, the AECEO has worked to build the collective voice for educators across the province, so they can participate in and influence positive change that benefits ECEs, children, families, and communities. Early Childhood Educators, early years staff and child care providers are the heart of our child care system and are experts at cultivating, co-creating, and advocating for high quality child care programs for young children and families. However, the work of ECEs, a highly racialized and feminized workforce, has historically not been respected, valued or well-remunerated through legislation or child care policy decisions across Canadian jurisdictions. This has resulted in a widespread workforce crisis, in which qualified and experienced ECEs and child care workers are leaving the sector, and graduates of ECE post-secondary programs are not entering the profession due to poor pay and lack of decent working conditions. We call on the federal government to enshrine their support for ECEs and their commitment to decent working conditions for all ECEs and child care staff in Bill C-35 and in ensuing policies.

Read full submission, and AECEO's proposed amendments to Bill C-35 here

Please see letter from the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, in partnership with the AECEO, sent to the College of Early Childhood Educators on February 23, 2023.

Full letter

Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECEs) work in a diverse range of early years settings in Ontario, bringing their knowledge and unique skill set to their pedagogical, caring work with young children, their families and our communities. However, Ontario’s qualified and experienced workforce are leaving the sector, and graduates of ECE post-secondary programs are not entering the profession due to poor pay and lack of decent working conditions. The 2023 Provincial Budget provides an opportunity to build and support a child care and early years system that cares for children, families and the workforce.

Our recommendations: 

• Invest an initial $300 million to develop and implement a province-wide Salary Scale for RECEs and child care staff/providers. A minimum wage  of $25/hour for all child care workers and $30/hour for RECEs with decent work standards (e.g. benefits, paid planning time, paid sick days) is required to immediately protect and respect the early childhood workforce, and address recruitment and retention issues. 
• Increase the general child care allocation by $240 million to $1.92 billion to keep pace with inflation, and meet increased costs that licensed child care is experiencing in daily operation. 
• Adopt and implement the child care community’s Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario, which sets out our vision and a shared path forward for Ontario child care.
• Fund 7 permanent paid sick days and additional 14 paid sick days during public health emergencies.
• Reverse cuts to the education budget and allocate funding to lower class sizes, increase wages, ensure paid preparation time and collaborative planning time for the Kindergarten Team, and ensure a healthy and safe work environment.

Read our full submission here

Statement prepared by Brooke Richardson, Adam Davies, and Michelle Jones and supported by the AECEO Board of Directors and staff

Who are we and how are we evolving as an organization?

One of the AECEO’s goals is to build the collective voice of Early Childhood Educators, who we trust to work creatively, collaboratively, and responsively with children, families, and communities. In doing this work, we understand educators, children, families, and communities as inevitably dependent and inextricably interdependent whereby responsive care relations are the foundation of good practice and quality care environments. While our mandate has evolved over time, one focus of our organization today is to critically engage with sociopolitical forces that undermine the work, value, and experiences of ECEs (and allied professionals) and advocate for change at the program, system, and public policy-level. We embrace our work as political, recognizing our responsibility to identify and challenge the chronic undervaluing of ECEs. But we also know we have much to learn. In the past few years, we have prioritized efforts to think with an anti-racist/anti-oppressive lens through ongoing engagement with Black, Indigenous, racialized, and newcomer educators, communities, children, and families. We are also working to establish stronger relationships with LGBTQIA2S communities to ensure we support gender and sexual minority educators, children, and families.

Why this statement?

This statement addresses two concerns. The first is the need to disclose certain mental or physical conditions or disorders on the College of Early Childhood Educator’s renewal form, and the second is the recent partnership between the CECE and People Connect, an online mental health self-assessment tool aimed at ECE’s mental health.

Download full statement

One of the AECEO’s goals is to build the collective voice of Early Childhood Educators who we trust to work creatively, collaboratively and responsively with children, families, and communities. In doing this work, we understand educators, children, families, and communities as inevitably dependent and inextricably interdependent whereby responsive care relations are the foundation of good practice and quality care environments. While our mandate has evolved over time, one focus of our organization today is to critically engage with sociopolitical forces that undermine the work, value, and experiences of ECEs (and allied professionals) and advocate for change at the program, system and public policy-level. We embrace our work as political, recognizing our responsibility to identify and challenge the chronic undervaluing of (highly gendered) ECEs. But we also know we have much to learn. In the past few years, we have prioritized efforts to think with an anti-racist/anti-oppressive lens through ongoing engagement with Black, Indigenous and newcomer educators, communities, children, and families. We are also working to establish stronger relationships with LGBTQIA2S communities to ensure we support gender and sexual minority educators, children, and families. We are thinking with these communities in voicing our concerns about the mandated SAPP.

Click here to read our statement.

Our recommendations:

• Immediately sign on to the federal child care plan. If Ontario fails to sign before March 31st we risk losing the first year of funding - over $1 Billion in federal funds.
• Adopt and implement the child care community’s Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario, which sets out our vision and a shared path forward for Ontario child care.
• Invest an initial $375 million to develop and implement a province-wide Wage Grid for RECEs and child care staff/providers. A $25 minimum wage is required to immediately protect and respect the early childhood workforce and address recruitment and retention issues.
• Immediately reverse the 5% administrative funding cut to child care.
• Increase general operating funding by $500 million to stabilize the child care sector.
• Reverse cuts to the education budget and allocate funding to lower class sizes, increase wages, ensure paid preparation time and collaborative planning time for the Kindergarten Team, and ensure a healthy and safe work environment.
• Fund 7 permanent paid sick days and additional 14 paid sick days during public health.

Click HERE to read our full submission.

In its 2021 budget the Government of Canada announced it was establishing a Canada-wide early learning and child care system and said "The federal government will work with provincial, territorial, and Indigenous partners to build a Canada-wide, community-based system of quality child care."  

After thorough consultation with the Child Care and Early Years community, the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario developed a Roadmap to Universal Child Care in Ontario - toward our vision of what a Canada-wide child care system can and must be in Ontario. The Roadmap includes 20 key policy interventions to achieving universal child care in Ontario. We know this is the beginning of a journey and we want to continue to hear from you. The Roadmap contains Discussion Questions and a feedback mechanism, as well as an invitation to highlight your program and contribute Policy Briefs as we continue this collective work.

Download the Roadmap