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Child care shortage is `daunting' STEPHANIE THIESSEN Special to The IFP Halton's exploding population has led to a dire need for child-care spots, with a shortage of almost 9,000 licensed spaces recently revealed. "It's daunting," said Mary Beth Jonz, Halton's director of Children's Services. This information arose from data collected for the Region's Integrated Early Learning and Child Care Plan. The plan was endorsed last week by the Region's health and social services committee after a presentation by Jonz. The plan, which is completed every five years, also outlines a need for fee subsidies and integrated services for children with special needs. There are currently 225 children with special needs in Halton who aren't receiving these services, Jonz told committee members. Another issue outlined in the presentation is a shortage of funding to pay wage subsidies for early childhood educators. All in all, the projected cost of meeting child care needs from 2007 to 2011 is $94.5 million. "It is a staggering amount," Jonz said. Most of the information-- including the need for more child-care spaces and an increase in wage subsidies and services-- isn't a surprise, Jonz said. What was surprising was the amount of growth that occurred since the last plan. "We knew we had growth, but we didn't know how much growth there was through all of Halton, with Milton the highest," Jonz said. From 2000 to last year, Milton had a 301 per cent increase in births, she said. Fortunately, there are new child-care spaces being developed. Yesterday, a groundbreaking ceremony was to take place for the new Bruce Trail Early Learning and Child Care Centre in Milton. Through the Best Start initiative, another 200 spaces will be created in Halon this year and next, Jonz said. The message that needs to be communicated through the plan is that "with our growth, our funding can't keep up. We can't meet the needs," Jonz said. See MORE, pg. 3 Have a heart-- with anchovies Some people wear their heart of their sleeve, but Boston Pizza is putting their heart on a pizza pan in celebration of Valentine's Day, as Georgetown Boston Pizza community relations co-ordinator Rhiannon McKane (left) and server Meagan Suitor display one of the heart-shaped pizzas available tomorrow at the Guelph Street restaurant. In addition to serving up a pizza for your sweetie, one dollar from the sale of each heart-shaped pizza will be donated to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The restaurant is also selling paper hearts for a dollar, with all proceeds also going to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Photo by Ted Brown