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On Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, Unifor joined early childhood educators, parents, labour leaders, and community advocates on the lawn of Queen’s Park in Toronto for the Care Counts Rally for Early Learning and Child Care.
The action amplified the call for Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario government to step up with necessary provincial funding for early learning and child care.
“Child care is essential for early learning, for families, and for Canada’s economy. We must value care workers and ensure they are fairly compensated and treated with respect,” said Ontario Regional Director Samia Hashi.
The rally, focused on how Ontario’s child care system is falling behind, highlighted the waitlist crisis, lack of a wage grid for ECEs, and how the province has no plan to achieve the promised average of $10-a-day child care for families.
"Ontario has no goal to build more child care spaces, no plan to improve ECE wages, and no intention of getting to $10aDay fees for families. Premier Doug Ford’s provincial government needs to step up and pull its weight,” said Carolyn Ferns, Public Policy Coordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care.
Ontario has not invested the provincial matching funds to support the child care sector workface, exacerbating a severe recruitment and retention crisis and worsening the waitlist crisis. Organizers highlighted that child care is a provincial responsibility that cannot be funded on federal dollars alone.
“Unifor is committed to the fight for high quality, affordable, accessible child care,” said Hashi. “When we work together, we can ensure that those providing child care thrive, ensuring families and our communities thrive too.”
