Frontline health-care workers and staff in licensed childcare settings will be given access to free childcare for their elementary-aged children in the event of a strike by school support staff, Education Minister Stephen Lecce has announced.

Approximately 55,000 CUPE members will be in a legal strike position as of Monday and most boards in the GTA have indicated that schools will close for in-person learning should the workers walk off the job for the second time this month.

In a statement issued on Friday morning, Lecce said that the government is committed to remaining at the table and getting an agreement.

But he said that if CUPE opts to strike, the government will provide free childcare to both eligible healthcare workers and childcare workers “for the duration” of any work stoppage.

He said that the government will also ensure that licensed before- and after-school programs “can easily pivot to full-day programs” by “expediting licence revision requests and relocation approvals.” As well, the government will make regulatory changes that will allow recreational programming to take place during the school day.

“We are doubling down on all efforts to get a deal; it just requires the union to accept the good proposal before them and not to walk out on kids on Monday. What we're trying to do is send a signal we are ready to pivot if we have to,” Lecce told CP24. 

CUPE has said that it plans to participate in talks with the government throughout the weekend, however it has set a soft deadline of 5 p.m. on Sunday to reach a deal and avert a strike the following day.

Lecce said that there is a “profound level of urgency” to reach a deal with CUPE ahead of that deadline.

But he suggested that the ball is largely the union’s court.

CUPE has previously said that the government has offered its members a 3.59 per cent annual raise, on average. However, it has said that the two sides are still far apart on a number of other issues, including staffing levels in schools. The union noted that those staffing requests would cost $100 million. According to a report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, that figure is just a “pocket change” or one-twentieth of one per cent of provincial revenues.

The union has also said that it is fighting "so students have the support they need to succeed.”

“I believe in the hours leading into the weekend, the union should hear from the parents out there who are speaking to me saying ‘Look my kids have to come first in this debate and they're always the casualty, they're always sort of the secondary priority,’” Lecce told CP24 on Friday. “The interests of children need to come first and the data on mental health is clear. These kids need to be in front of the educators, they need routine, stability." 

The Ford government says that the list of health-care workers eligible for free childcare includes doctors, nurses, personal support workers, other health-care providers and those who work in hospitals, long-term care, retirement homes, and applicable congregate care settings.