My name is Sharon Gregson. I'm the spokesperson for the Coalition of Child Care Advocates. I'm also a Vancouver school board trustee. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you on this important issue.
The Coalition of Child Care Advocates is a voluntary organization of interested citizens, parents, grandparents, employers, employees, and community organizations. We agree that families and communities, business and governments can and should be partners sharing responsibility for creating a healthy economy, stronger communities, and a better society. We believe Canada needs to be proactive and implement social policy and funding that nurtures the development of skills that will maximize our potential as individuals, as vital communities, as regions, and as a nation.
There are a few key points we would like to emphasize.
In the first six years of life, a child goes through the most critical periods for brain development. These periods help determine future capacities. High-quality, regulated child care offers appropriate intellectual, social, and emotional stimulation and teaching for children in the critical early years.
Research affirms that high-quality, regulated child care is an essential component of a comprehensive family policy—one that nurtures children and supports families. Indeed the recent Statistics Canada release of August 2006 shows us that in 29% of cases, women are now the family's primary breadwinner. More than three million children under the age of 12 currently have mothers in the paid labour force in Canada.
Canada's productivity relies on working mothers with young children, who contribute $53 million annually to Canada's GDP. That statistic is from the Canadian Council on Social Development. We believe that child care strengthens the economy and builds community. Employed parents contribute to the economy as workers and as consumers. Employers and employees in regulated child care services contribute to the regional economy and to the federal tax revenues.
Labour shortages are a growing problem in Canada, but without regulated child care, parents—especially mothers—can't work.
You've asked for our views about specific federal tax or program spending measures that should be implemented in the upcoming budget. We see worrisome evidence that some Canadians and members of Parliament have lost sight of the connection between the taxes we pay and the vital services we receive.
Over the last several years we learned in British Columbia, as we are now experiencing federally, that tax cuts mean program and service cuts, increased user fees, and loss of federally funded social programs—all of which impact negatively on communities, particularly low- and moderate-income families, women and children.
We believe Canadians would be much better served by our investing the surplus in a range of public services that address the most important problems facing the country today. We in the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. think it makes sense to invest in a regulated child care system through the tax system, because families are usually at their lowest earning power when their children are youngest, and because children's development is time sensitive and can't wait until their families are more affluent. The benefits of investing in regulated child care now outweigh the costs and will lead to future increased tax revenues.
Work-life conflicts cost Canadian organizations an estimated $2.7 billion annually—again this is from the Canadian Council on Social Development. The earlier we invest in our children, the longer we all reap the benefits through economic contributions, a civil society, and a healthier population.
Regarding the implementation of the federal universal child care benefit program, as you are well aware, the taxable benefit is a new form of direct financial assistance of $100 per month for a child under the age of six, as stated on the government's website. While it is an allowance to individual parents, and well received by them, it is not supporting progress towards building an early learning, regulated child care system for Canadian families.
In fact, this benefits higher-income families with one at-home parent more than it helps lower-income parents who need and would choose regulated child care because both parents are at work or studying. Families with young children who qualify for the new benefit can no longer collect the young child supplement paid under the Canada child tax benefit program. Families with children aged six to twelve with equally critical regulated child care needs receive zero through this new taxable allowance, and we believe that's unfair.
The website information says it provides parents with more choice in child care.