'Childcare desert': Decades-old Toronto daycare to shut down in 7 months, leaving parents to scramble on next steps
CTV
A group of parents in Toronto is raising concerns about whether they will be able to find adequate childcare after learning that the centre their children attend will close this summer.
A group of parents in Toronto is raising concerns about whether they will be able to find adequate childcare after learning that the centre their children attend will close this summer.
“Essentially, if this closes, it becomes a childcare desert,” Kevin Morrison, a Toronto Catholic District School Board trustee for Ward 9, said of Carmelite Day Nursery.
The daycare, nestled near Dundas Street West and Ossington Avenue, has been looking after children up to 10 years old, including months-old infants, since it was founded over 100 years ago.
Since then, for the parents who send their children to Carmelite, it has become more than just a daycare – it has become family.
“They’re our family,” Kathleen Killin told CTV News Toronto. “I never thought that at my age, I’m 34, that I would be making best friends and that my best friends would be other women from my son’s daycare. But sure enough, they are, and we’re [a] very, very, very close-knit community.”
Killin’s two children, four-year-old Danny and 18-month-old Patrick are among the 175 kids who attend the west-end Toronto daycare.
Over 30 per cent of the families who send their children here are on subsidy, Killin said, and it participates in the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care system – the federally-initiated program to reduce childcare costs to an average of $10-a-day by 2026.
