Thank you very much for your interest in listening to our presentation. Seeing that it's five minutes, I must go on.
First Call: B.C. Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition is a coalition of provincial and regional organizations, individuals, and local community networks who share the belief that children and youth should have first call on our nation’s resources.
Our 90 partner organizations are committed to achieving the following four keys to success for all children and youth: a strong commitment to early childhood development; support in transitions from childhood to youth and adulthood; increased economic equality; and safe and caring communities.
Our coalition is really pleased to respond to the finance committee’s invitation for advice on how to achieve sustained economic recovery, as investments in children’s healthy growth and development form the foundation of any society’s social and economic sustainability. Similarly, we are pleased to share our recommendations with the committee for budget measures that will help ensure shared prosperity and a high standard of living for all.
This submission makes three recommendations for the committee’s consideration with regard to the preparation for the 2012 federal budget.
Number one would be to place a high priority on increasing Canada’s annual investments in early childhood care and learning, from our current 0.25% of GDP to the recommended UNICEF benchmark of 1% of GDP.
Number two would be to focus spending and redesign federal tax policy with the aim of reversing the growth of income inequality in Canada.
Number three would be to submit all budget decisions to the scrutiny of a child impact assessment, especially for impacts on members of particularly vulnerable groups, such as aboriginal children, children with disabilities, recent immigrant children, and children in lone-parent and female-led families, in order to ensure we do no harm.
Accomplishing the first two broad objectives, supporting early childhood development and reducing income inequality, is fundamental to creating a healthier, more sustainable path of social and economic development for our country. The third recommendation provides a process with little or no cost, which will reduce the risk for negative unintended consequences.
Canada’s public expenditure on early childhood services is extremely low in comparison to other OECD countries. Yet we know from extensive research on human development that the early years represent the unique window in the human life course during which citizens’ physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive potential are especially malleable to the positive effects of nurturing environments and strategic human capital investments.
Canada’s failure to properly support young children and their families through more effective social policy, such as more generous and inclusive parental leave, adequate income supports for those in need, and universal access to quality early care and learning for all children is resulting in high rates of vulnerability in children. This vulnerability translates into weakened educational outcomes, health inequities, and long-term loss of productive potential. This is a recipe for unsustainability and rising social costs.
If we are truly interested in increasing productivity and ensuring the next generation is equipped to compete in an international, knowledge-based economy, the starting place is increasing Canada’s public investments in early childhood development and education.
You've asked us to give our best thoughts on what's important, our recommended priorities for next year, and what the government can do to help us. In answering, we start from the assumption that we all want what is best for B.C.'s children, while recognizing that there will be disagreements—sometimes within the coalition and sometimes with the government of the day—about which public policies include budget priorities that will be serve our children.
We are looking for the 2012 federal budget to demonstrate the wisdom of long-term thinking, which judges every tax and program spending measure from the view of its impact on the well-being of Canada's youngest and most vulnerable, children and families, and places child and youth rights at the top of the priority list.
That's my five minutes?