Strike-sitters for the inevitable ETFO strike in April 2009

The 73,000 elementary school teachers in Ontario, part of the ETFO, have threatened to vote on Job action pending a skirt-lifting by the school boards on Friday February 13th (great date, BTW). So what if these teachers do vote for job action, and that action isn't 'work to rule' but a full blown strike (anticipated in late march were it to happen)?

800,000 students would be unable to attend elementary school, and that means an unbelievable demand for daycare, nannies, sitters, and child care in general for the 100,000+ parents who don't have the luxury of taking time of work to look after their children. With University and College classes not quite over, and highschool girls having their own school classes to attend, this could be quite the predicament for Ontario parents.

A U.S. company,  Sitter Soirees, organizes mixers for parents and sitters to connect willing and qualified care-givers with needy parents.  The sitters are screened by the company and photos and resumes are provided to the parents for parusal.  Then, just like speed-dating, everyone gets a chance to meet everyone else to find the 'personality fit' so important to this kind of arrangement.

I had another idea for this seemingly daunting and iminent under-supply of care-givers.  Treat baby-sitters like escorts-- or rather, the business model of an escort service.  Sitters sign up to be represented, and pay a small cut to the service that places them.  The problem I quickly found with this idea (from a parent I spoke with) is that most parents want to be able to meet and trust their sitter prior to sit.  The Soiree's mentioned above seem to promote these feelings among parents.  It'll be interesting to see what happens...