TORONTO-The Ontario government’s announcement that it has finally joined every other province and territory across Canada in signing the federal child care plan marks a long-overdue turning point for Canadian families.

Unifor is an active champion for access to affordable child care and has worked in coalition with advocacy groups to advocate for families and child care workers. Unifor works to improve communities and workplaces through other equity-building policies and programs.

Savings for Ontario parents are to start as of April 1, 2022, whereas provinces that signed earlier, like Nova Scotia, are making the rebate to parents retroactive to January 1, 2022.

Parent fees for child care in Ontario are some of the highest in the country and, until today, Ontario had been the only jurisdiction in Canada not to sign the federal child care program that will deliver $10-a-day child care by 2026.

To read Unifor’s full statement, click here.

As reported in Rankandfile.ca, “in a move that shocked trade unionists across the country, the Regina Police Service arrested Unifor National President Jerry Dias and thirteen other Unifor members at Gate 7 of Regina’s Co-op Refinery Complex on Monday, January 20, 2020.  About 730 refinery workers, members of Local 594, have been locked out for the past 49 days for trying to save their current Defined Benefit pension plan.”

Labour activists and leaders from across the country joined the picket line outside the Co-op Refinery Complex in a united show of solidarity.