With free emergency childcare for eligible health care and frontline workers starting next week, local details on the service are still being confirmed.
The program is slated to start April 19, when schools change to remote learning. Students are on the April break and not in class this week.
"The service is intended for workers performing critical duties in the province's continued fight against COVID-19 who cannot work remotely and who have elementary school-aged children," according to an April 15 news release from the province.
In the Timmins area, the Cochrane District Social Service Administration Board (CDSSAB) is organizing the child care service.
CDSSAB is waiting for its emergency childcare plan to be approved by the province, said director of children's services Shannon Costello.
"Upon approval, we will update the website with the link to the application for Emergency Child Care. CDSSAB has been working with licensed centres in the district and will be opening centres with limited capacity in Cochrane, Hearst, Kapuskasing, Iroquois Falls and Timmins. All applications will be reviewed by CDSSAB to determine eligibility based of the eligibility list provided by the Ministry of Education," she said.
To help keep child care centres open, child care workers, including Registered Early Childhood Educators, are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine as part of Phase Two of the province's distribution plan.
People eligible for the free childcare program include:
- Health care workers
- People working to administer, distribute or manufacture COVID-19 vaccines
- Child care workers, including staff at emergency child care programs
- Grocery store and pharmacy workers
- Police officers, firefighters, paramedics, provincial inspection or enforcement workers, as well as justice, court and correctional system workers
- Children's Aid Society and residential services frontline staff
- People working in developmental services, violence against women services, victims' services, anti-human trafficking or people interpreting for persons who are deaf or deaf-blind
- Homeless shelter staff or people providing services to the homeless
- Food safety inspectors and people working in the processing, manufacturing or distribution of food and beverages
- Ontario Public Service staff in Radiation Protection Services or who perform critical tasks for environmental monitoring, reporting and laboratory services
- RCMP, Canada Borer Services, Canadian Armed Forces and Canada Post employees
- Power workers
- Non-municipal water and wastewater workers
- Workers collecting, transporting, storing, processing, disposing or recycling any type of waste
- Education staff required to attend schools for students with special needs who cannot be accommodated through remote learning
- Hotel or motel employees of a site that is an isolation centre, health care centre, vaccine clinic or housing essential workers
- Truck drivers and transit workers
- Construction workers
- Anyone whose child was registered in an emergency child care program delivered by a consolidated municipal service manager of district social service administration board from April 6, 2021 to April 16, 2021
The complete list is available here and will be updated by Friday, April 16, according to the province.
People eligible for a vaccine can register for upcoming clinics in the Porcupine Health Unit region here. Select pharmacies are also delivering the vaccine. Find a list of those and book an appointment here.
