Over the past year, our research has highlighted some of the challenges that stagnating wages pose for families in Canada. This week, our latest report offered insight into a key factor affecting families’ bottom line: child care fees. The fourth annual snapshot of child care costs found that, not only are these fees going up, they are outpacing inflation in the majority of Canadian cities. As a result, child care fees have become the second biggest expense for many families after housing. As rising fees push child care out of reach, families are scrambling for stopgap solutions including settling for unlicensed child care options or having one parent stay home because they can’t afford to return to work.
There is hope, though. Our research found that provinces where governments set fees and provide operational funding consistently have the lowest child care fees, compared to areas where the market is left to decide what families will pay. While infant care in Toronto costs $1,758 a month or $21,096 a year, infant care in Montreal costs just $168 a month or $2,016 a year. Programs in Quebec, Manitoba, and PEI show that government led initiatives to provide affordable child care work.
Our report resonated with communities across Canada and we’ve had a busy week talking with reporters from coast to coast about child care costs and what we can do to bring affordable child care to every community across the country.
Here’s a link to the full report, authored by our senior economist David Macdonald, and below you’ll find a few of the national media headlines we made. To see more stories about our report and its findings, be sure to
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