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June 13, 2008
Article Source: Canadian Labour Congress
Fact: the vast majority of Canadian moms have a job outside of home. To be exact, 65% of mothers of children under three years old work outside the home. – 75% of mothers of pre-school kids (under five years old) are in the paid workforce.
Fact: Only 16% of children in Canada have access to a regulated child care space. Almost half of those spaces, 45%, are in Quebec. The only jurisdiction in Canada where a decent effort is made to serve working families with young children.
Somewhere, somehow, the care of young children, their learning opportunities and the quality of life of working parents with young children do not rate high in the priorities list of our federal government and of most of the other provincial governments.
This is why, this month, women from coast to coast to coast are gathering to let their governments know that this is not good enough. Through the Canadian Labour Congress’ campaign for women’s economic equality, unions, women’s groups and child care advocates are using June – report card season – to grade our governments on their work on child care.
In its report card, the federal government gets a failing grade for its lack of action on providing working parents with more access to affordable, quality child care spaces.
At a news conference on Parliament Hill, the Canadian Labour Congress also released a full set of report cards grading the provinces on their overall performance when it comes to delivering the child care services working families need.
Based on public data provided by or through governments, the report cards measure progress (or lack thereof) in three areas: 1) affordability, measured by what it costs parents to access child care services, 2) quality, measured by the salaries paid to child care staff, and 3) accessibility, measured by the creation of new public child care spaces.
Manitoba scored the highest mark, with a grade of B+ while the lowest mark, a D-, was awarded to British Columbia.
Quebec was not included in the Canadian Labour Congress survey because of that province’s advanced child care and early learning services. With just 22% of Canada’s children, Quebec accounts for 45% of the country’s total regulated child care spaces and 78% of the total increase in public funding since 2001. Including it in the survey would be like comparing scrambled eggs to quiche.
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