On April 29, 2020, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Education Stephen Lecce announced that Ontario is further expanding the list of essential workers eligible to receive free emergency child care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Premier Ford and Minister Lecce were joined by Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Christine Elliott.
Following this afternoon’s announcement, Premier Ford responded to questions from media about the government’s framework for reopening the province.
Further Details
Expanded Access to Emergency Child Care for Essential Workers
This afternoon, Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Education Stephen Lecce announced that Ontario is further expanding the list of essential workers eligible to receive free emergency child care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The additional workers who can now access emergency childcare services include:
- Workers in grocery stores and pharmacies;
- Truck drivers;
- Workers in the food supply chain, including food processing;
- Workers in retirement homes;
- Auxiliary workers in health care settings, including cooks and cleaning staff in hospitals and long-term care homes;
- Interpreters and intervenors who support people who are deaf, blind, heard of hearing, and deafblind;
- Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry emergency personnel;
- Provincial officers and onsite staff in Ontario courts;
- Canadian Armed Forces and Department of National Defence staff working in Ontario;
- Additional workers supporting public safety and correctional services.
Ontario first issued an emergency order directing certain child care centres to reopen on March 22 in order to support frontline health care workers by providing emergency child care. Since this emergency order, almost 100 child care centres have reopened along with 40 Licensed Home Child Care Agencies in communities across the province. In order to accommodate the children of essential workers on the expanded list announced today, 37 additional centres have been approved to reopen in the coming days. A list of emergency child care centres is available at Ontario.ca/coronavirus.
In response to questions about child care needs impacting a return to work for parents should schools not be permitted to reopen, Minister Lecce acknowledged that child care is often a prerequisite for labour market participation. He confirmed that the province’s broader recovery plan will take into account the need for child care services.
Framework for Reopening Ontario
Following this afternoon’s announcement, Premier Ford responded to questions from media about the government’s framework for reopening the province.
In response to questions about comparatively more concrete plans for reopening in other provinces such as Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec, Premier Ford said that he is unwilling to take a risk by setting a specific date on which to begin reopening Ontario’s economy. He admitted that provincial health officials are seeing encouraging trends but emphasized that Ontario would need to continue to act cautiously due to the concentrated population in the Greater Toronto Area.
When asked about Ontario’s testing capacity, Premier Ford was optimistic that the province will soon reach the target of being able to process 14,000 tests per day. The province will continue to increase its testing capacity, focusing on testing in long-term care and child care centres.