My name is Elizabeth Ablett. I'm the executive director of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. The OCBCC was founded in 1981 to advocate for universally accessible, high-quality, non-profit, regulated child care in Ontario. Since then, as a non-partisan advocacy organization, the OCBCC has continued to press successive governments at all levels to improve child care to benefit children and families across Ontario.
Our membership includes representatives of more than 500 organizations and individuals from across the province from education, health care, labour, child welfare, injury prevention, rural communities, first nations, francophones, social policy, anti-poverty professionals, student and women's organizations, as well as community-based child care programs and local child care action. We're also a member of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, and I'm the Ontario representative on the CCAC board of directors. Our presentation today is based on the submission by the CCAC to the federal Standing Committee on Finance last month.
The OCBCC defines early learning and child care as a non-compulsory program that supports the optimal development of learning of children aged zero to twelve years at the same time as it enables parents to work, study, and care for other family members and participate in their community. It provides supports and resources to help parents become active participants in their children's early learning and promotes women's equality. An effective child care system works to provide a range of high-quality and inclusive service options for all families.
As a society, Canada invests less in early learning and child care services than most other developed countries. The OECD's recently released study, Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care, shows that of the fourteen industrialized countries included in its findings, Canada ranks the lowest in terms of public investment in early learning in child care, lower even than Mexico. The OECD's study is only one of the most recent of many conducted over the last thirty years. I have a few of these with me today. Most of them are studies and research conducted by Canadians about Canada. Report after report concludes what we should already know as citizens, parents, and advocates: publicly funded, high-quality, regulated early learning in child care is good for children. What is shocking is that even after thirty years of conclusive evidence, we still hesitate to take the steps needed to provide Canadian children and families with the early learning and child care programs they both deserve and need.
The best way to do this is through sustained focused public investment in these programs and services, not targeted, not exclusive, not patchwork. Ultimately, focused public investment in these programs benefit not only our children and families but our communities and our economy as well. Not only do quality early learning and child care programs help children acquire the foundation for lifelong health, learning, and skills development, but they also support the ongoing learning, skills development, and labour force attachment of their parents.
Investment in these programs represents an investment in the potential and competitiveness of all Canadians today and in the future. Therefore, the OCBCC calls on this federal government, first, to adopt the recommendations in our briefing to restore and increase sustained long-term federal funding to the provinces and territories dedicated specifically to the development of early learning and child care programs that are high quality, non-profit, universal, accessible, fully inclusive, and meet the needs of every child; second, to enact legislation that recognizes the principles of a pan-Canadian child care system; third, to replace the capital incentives for child care spaces with dedicated capital transfers to the provinces and territories; and finally, to provide effective income supports for all Canadian families.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to present today. I appreciate it.