To support an equitable, gender-responsive 2021 budget, the YWCA Ontario Coalition recommends the Province:
1. Mandate 10 paid sick days immediately.
2. Institute a $4 per hour pandemic pay premium for child care, shelter and other front-line workers during the pandemic.
3. Invest in the child care sector including increasing base-funding and additional investments to prevent nonprofit child care closures.
4. Enhance income security by raising OW and ODSP rates to $2000 per month and properly staff Ontario’s Social Tribunal System.
5. Support women’s labour market participation by taking a multi-year funding approach for preapprentice training programs, creating a specific category for women in Employment Ontario, and targeting women in a concerted manner with the new $115 million Skills Training Fund.
6. Prioritize housing investments to meet Ontario’s affordable and supportive housing needs and offer rent relief provisions.
7. Invest in girls’ programming. Currently, there is no provincial funding for girls’ programming at all.
8. Stabilize enhanced funding for VAW shelters and create a provincewide strategy on gender based violence.
9. Help nonprofits at risk of closure through a sector stabilization fund and through greater access to existing funding.
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