Social Policy in Ontario

‘Quality child care all families can afford’

Posted on August 13, 2015 in Child & Family Policy Context

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NationalPost.com – Full Comment/Letters – Re: The Folly Of Universal Childcare, Stephen Gordon, Aug. 11.
August 12, 2015.   Carolyn Ferns / Paul Moist

Stephen Gordon contends that child care is “a functioning market.” Any parent who has languished on a waiting list for a child-care space or subsidy and any child-care worker making a little above minimum wage despite years of training and professional accreditation might choose to disagree. Plenty of economists would disagree too.

Leaving child care to the market fails us all in three key ways. Sky-high parent fees are one part of the problem, but so too are a lack of quality spaces where they are most needed and low wages for child-care workers. The federal government is behind the times on child care, dead last on most international comparisons of public investment. But this year, we have a chance to catch up, to push for quality child care all families can afford and trust. It’s well worth it.

Carolyn Ferns, policy coordinator, Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, Toronto.

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Stephen Gordon’s comment on child care missed some important facts. Canada has some of the lowest child-care access rates in the industrialized world, with regulated spaces for fewer than 20 per cent of children; parents’ fees are among the highest in the world, close in expense to housing costs; and quality is constantly undermined by low wages and poor retention rates for college-trained early childhood educators. Child care is a spectacular example of market failure.

The Conservative promise to create 125,000 child-care spots based on a market approach resulted in zero new spaces and has since been brushed under the carpet. Only government leadership at all levels will result in creating quality affordable child care for all families who want it. That is why the New Democrats’ plan makes so much sense.

There are many studies showing the benefits of quality early learning and child care. Two of the key benefits are how it contributes to women’s labour force participation and the economy and the positive impact on children. It is pure folly not to recognize this.

Paul Moist, national president, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ottawa.

Tags: child care, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living

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