A new report from Compass Early Learning and Care, Increasing Equity in Centre-Based Early Childhood Education & Care, highlights the systemic barriers faced by racialized immigrant women working in Ontario’s early learning and child care (ELCC) sector.
Funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), the report explores the experiences of educators, childcare leaders, educational institutions, advocacy organizations, and newcomer-serving agencies to better understand the challenges affecting recruitment, retention, and career advancement.
The research identifies three key areas requiring action:
- Immigration barriers continue to create instability for both educators and employers. Complex immigration pathways, credential recognition challenges, and limited organizational capacity to support workers can affect workforce retention and career mobility.
- Gaps in education and training, including unpaid placements, inconsistent onboarding, and limited placement supports, create additional financial and structural barriers for newcomer educators entering the profession.
- Workplace discrimination and exclusion remain persistent challenges. Participants described experiences of bias in hiring, promotion, mentorship, and day-to-day workplace interactions that affect belonging, well-being, and opportunities for advancement.
In response, the report outlines 15 recommendations aimed at governments, regulatory bodies, educational institutions, and child care organizations. These include improving immigration supports, strengthening credential recognition pathways, reducing financial barriers to ECE education, enhancing workplace orientation and mentorship, and embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into organizational policies and leadership practices.
As Ontario continues to address ongoing workforce shortages in child care, the report emphasizes that supporting racialized immigrant educators is essential to building a stronger, more inclusive early learning system. By addressing systemic barriers, the sector can improve workforce stability while ensuring educators are recognized, valued, and supported throughout their careers.
ACE’s recommendations focus largely on reducing demand for affordable child care through eligibility restrictions, targeted affordability, and system restructuring.
B2C2’s recommendations focus on expanding the supply of affordable child care by addressing workforce shortages, infrastructure barriers, and financing challenges that prevent new spaces from being created.
Long waiting lists are not evidence that affordable child care has failed. They are evidence that Ontario has not yet built enough spaces to meet demand.
The central question is not whether fewer families should receive affordable child care. The central question is how governments can create enough spaces to meet growing demand.