{"id":139568,"date":"2025-09-12T22:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T22:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/139568\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T22:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T22:02:10","slug":"coalition-welcomes-new-safety-rules-proposed-by-ford-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/139568\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition welcomes new safety rules proposed by Ford government"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Ontario\u2019s proposed measures to boost daycare safety<\/a> are welcome, but the province should be cautious not to impose a \u201cblanket\u201d solution given the diversity of programs in the province, a coalition that represents hundreds of child-care centres said Friday. <\/p>\n

The province promised changes Thursday evening after a vehicle drove into a Richmond Hill daycare<\/a> at pickup time on Wednesday, killing a toddler and leaving six young children and three adults injured.<\/p>\n

York Regional Police said Friday that two of the injured kids were still in critical condition. A 70-year-old man is facing dangerous driving charges, and police have said they do not believe it was a deliberate act.<\/p>\n

Education Minister Paul Calandra said the government is looking into legislative changes to restrict parking near windows and exterior walls of child-care facilities, and to require higher curbs and bollards in some areas.<\/p>\n

Carolyn Ferns, the policy co-ordinator for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, said the tragedy left the community heartbroken and providers have already been thinking about how to make sure something like this doesn\u2019t happen again. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s good to see that the government is also thinking about that,\u201d she said in an interview Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully this is a time where, you know, everybody \u2014 the government, child care operators \u2014 will be reflecting on this and thinking … what can we do now to help make sure children are safe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferns said different daycares might need different safety measures. For some, it might a good idea to remove parking spaces outside their windows, while for others, a higher-elevation curb or the installation of bollards could be enough. <\/p>\n

She said the ministry has to figure out what changes are \u201cappropriate\u201d for a variety of different types of businesses. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we need to make sure that the rules make sense given the different kinds of settings that we see in Ontario,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Ferns also stressed that any new requirements should come with financial support.<\/p>\n

Daycares have fixed revenue, meaning they cannot make proposed retrofits without help, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would need, you know, some funding and support for child-care programs to be able to implement this rule in settings across the board,\u201d said Ferns.<\/p>\n

She added that any new rules being developed should also address safety risks posed by the presence of busy roadways near daycares. <\/p>\n

There should be enough space between streets and buildings, she said, and bollards should be required in some areas.<\/p>\n

As the province works to expand child-care spaces, it should also work on fresh design guidelines for any new facilities that will be opened, she said. <\/p>\n

Calandra said in a post on social media that he ordered his staff to work with inspectors and service providers to identify \u201cvulnerabilities and take immediate actions\u201d before any upcoming legislative changes.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2025. <\/p>\n

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Ontario\u2019s proposed measures to boost daycare safety are welcome, but the province should be cautious not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,11867,714,715],"class_list":{"0":"post-139568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-ontario-quebec","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}