About 4,200 new students enroll in an early childhood education program each year and the average graduation rate is about 72 per cent, but only about half of registered ECEs choose to work in licensed child care, according to the government.

Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/9754445/ontario-to-boost-ece-ewages/

Carly Rich, the program’s co-ordinator, says the labour shortage for ECEs is “extremely critical” in that programs are closing in some organizations because they don’t have staff to be able to operate their programs on a full-time basis.

Source: https://www.chroniclejournal.com/news/local/career-fair-allows-for-networking/article_0d7ca3ea-a9d1-11ed-a94b-2bcedf0371d1.html

The Canadian Press obtained Ministry of Education summaries on those consultation sessions through a Freedom of Information request and they show that the government was overwhelmingly told variations of “pay ECEs more.”

Source: https://www.chch.com/ontario-to-boost-early-childhood-educator-wages-in-bid-to-ease-staff-shortage/