Ontario to provide free emergency childcare to some frontline workers starting Monday

Ontario has announced that some frontline workers will soon be able to avail themselves of emergency childcare at no cost.

In the announcement made on Thursday, the provincial government revealed that beginning Monday, January 10, several workers will become eligible for free emergency childcare services.

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The following workers qualify:

• healthcare workers, including but not limited to doctors, nurses, healthcare providers and those who work in long-term care and retirement homes, as well as individuals who manufacture or distribute medical/pharmaceutical supplies
• individuals performing work in relation to the administration, distribution or manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines
• education staff who are required to attend schools to provide in-person instruction and support to students with special education needs who cannot be accommodated through remote learning
• childcare workers, including those staffing the emergency childcare programs
• truck drivers and transit workers
• construction workers
• grocery store and pharmacy workers
• public safety (police, fire, paramedics, provincial inspection/enforcement), justice/court and correctional system workers
• power workers
• non-municipal water and wastewater workers
• frontline staff in Children’s Aid Societies and residential services
• individuals working in a homeless shelter or providing services to homeless persons
• individuals working in developmental services, violence against women services, victims’ services, anti-human trafficking and those engaged in interpreting or intervenor services for persons who are deaf or deaf-blind
• food safety inspectors and individuals working in the processing, manufacturing or distribution of food and beverages
• workers involved in the collecting, transporting, storing, processing, disposing or recycling of any type of waste
• certain federal employees, including RCMP, Canada Border Services, Canadian Armed Forces and Canada Post workers
• OPS staff employed in Radiation Protection Services
• OPS staff performing critical tasks related to environmental monitoring, reporting and laboratory services
• employees of a hotel or motel that is acting as an isolation centre, healthcare centre, vaccine clinic or housing essential workers
• funeral, burial and cremation services operators
• any individual whose child was registered in an emergency childcare program delivered by a Consolidated Municipal Service Manager or District Social Service Administration Board during the time period beginning on April 6, 2021 and ending on April 16, 2021.

The announcement comes in addition to childcare workers and education staff receiving priority appointments for booster shots beginning Friday.

To check whether your family qualifies for access to emergency childcare, contact your local service system manager. A more extensive list of those eligible is available here.