TORONTO, Ont. – The City of Toronto says it is prepared if the city’s inside workers are locked out or walk off the job.

As part of the city’s contingency plan, City Manager Joe Pennachetti says most city services will continue, but all 52 city-run child care centres will be closed.

“The city has a contingency plan in place that outlines the key city services that will be affected in the event of a labour disruption,” said City Manager Joe Pennachetti. “The city will implement this plan if required. We are still committed to reaching a negotiated settlement with Local 79 and we are working around the clock to reach an agreement that is reasonable and fair to employees, the city, and residents.”

Also closing would be city-operated recreation centres and recreation programs.

Workers who would be affected by the strike include daycare workers, rec centre staff, ambulance dispatchers and public-health nurses.

Toronto Police, Fire and EMS will not be affected by the strike. Nor will the TTC or any of the city’s 10 long-term care homes,

Water and sewage will not be affected and neither will residential and commercial garbage and recycling.

It was only February when an outside workers strike with CUPE Local 416, which would have affected garbage collection, was narrowly averted.

The city maintains that a strike by the approximately 23,000 workers represented by CUPE Local 79 would not be as disruptive as the strike by the outside workers could have been.

Should the strike happen some of the closures would include city-operated community centres and swimming pools, city-run museums and city-run child care centres.

Also closing would be immunization and sexual health clinics and cultural facilities.

Other closures would likely include:

• All children’s services district offices.
• No new applications for child-care subsidies will be processed.
• Fee subsidy appointments will be cancelled.
• All parks, forestry and recreation facilities will be closed to the public, including pools, curling clubs, community centres, arenas and fitness centres.
• All programs will be cancelled at city-operated community centres, this includes city-operated programs offered at satellite locations like community schools and camps.
• Most permits at city-operated community centres, indoor arenas, outdoor sports fields, park and picnic grounds will be cancelled.
• The city does have a list of permits that will be honoured on the city website. New permit requests will not be accepted during the disruption except outdoor sports fields, allotment gardens and picnic grounds.
• Wedding ceremonies will continue at City Hall but not continue at North York, Scarborough, York, East York Civic Centres.