A Scarborough daycare centre will temporarily stay open after it was set to close on Monday with almost no warning.
The parents of about 90 children were told on Friday that their childcare centre would be closed by Monday. The temporary solution comes after staff agreed to work without wages at Progress Childcare Centre on Glamorgan Avenue, near Markham Road and Eglinton Avenue.
It's unclear for how long the employees will continue to come in without being paid.
Parents expressed their relief after hearing the news during a press conference at the daycare on Sunday afternoon.
"It means that I'll be able to go to work tomorrow because I do depend on this daycare to bring my kids to school so I'm happy it's going to be open," said parent Pauline Baldwin.
Staff member Shaku Kesavan was emotional when she heard the news.
"When you work with the children you (feel for them) so now I'm so happy. We worked really hard to get it back," she said.
Progress employee Maria Wisniowska said workers were told Thursday evening the facility would be shutting down and were left to break the news to parents Friday morning.
"Parents had no warning," Wisniowska said. "We had one parent crying this morning that she was going to lose her job, because when she told her boss that she needed to stay with her kids on Monday, she would be fired."
The subsidized childcare centre caters to low-income Scarborough parents with children between six months and six years of age.
The Progress Child Care Centre has had financial trouble for months, and owes more than $100,000. The centre's board had hoped something could be done to save it but has run out of money.
Many parents are unable to afford to send their children to daycare anywhere else. And with the centre closing without notice, those rushing to find another spot for their children were facing impossibly-long waiting lists.
The daycare's union, which covers 26 child-care facilities across the city, said that while Progress is the only centre in immediate danger of closing, it's not the only one in financial jeopardy.
"I would say at least three-quarters of them have called us and told us they are very, very scared financially," said CUPE representative Janet Teibo.
On Friday, NDP MPP Peter Tabuns blamed the possible closure on Premier Dalton McGuinty, claiming the Liberal government has left daycares "chronically underfunded."
"Now, with four and five year-olds leaving for full-day kindergarten, childcare centres across the province are in danger of closing," Tabuns said in a statement, calling for Ford and McGuinty to find a way to save the centre.
A city auditor will investigate the daycare's books on Monday morning. Parents said that if the funding issue isn't solved, they will take it to city council.
With files from CTV Toronto's Scott Lightfoot.
