I'm Shellie Bird from the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, and I thank you for the opportunity to present today.
I've worked in child care for over 30 years, caring for and educating hundreds of young children and being a support to their parents as they struggle to balance the needs of their children with the demands of their paid work or studies.
I know firsthand the increasing pressures on young parents as they face growing job insecurity, stagnating wages, increased student debt, and higher costs for the basics—food, housing, and utilities. At the same time, these families face sky-high child care fees, typically the second highest cost in most family budgets today.
Child care in Canada is in a state of crisis. It is a fragmented patchwork that demonstrates the failure of a market-based approach to meeting the needs of young children and their families. Evidence of this crisis can be seen across the country in unaffordable fees for parents, shortage of child care spaces, poor wages and working conditions for child care providers, and a growth in large corporate child care interests in Canada.
National and international studies show that child care grows the economy. A recent study commissioned by the Child Care Human Resources Sector Council found that investing in child care provides the greatest benefit of all sectors in the Canadian economy. Child care is a strong economic stimulus. For every dollar invested, the GDP is increased by $2.30, producing one of the highest GDP impacts of all major sectors.
If the federal government is serious about ensuring sustained economic recovery and growth, it must take action now to support provinces and territories to build systems of early learning and care that allow parents to work and/or study and assist in children's healthy development.
If the federal government is serious about investing in job creation and a knowledge-based economy, then it must make investment in child care a priority. Building systems of affordable, accessible public child care not only creates jobs, it also increases families' purchasing power and provides additional tax revenue.
Research has found that child care is one of the biggest job creators, both in the jobs it creates in the child care sector itself and by allowing more parents to enter and remain in the workforce or to train and retrain for better jobs. In Quebec, where half of all children under the age of five have access to affordable child care, 70,000 women have entered the labour force, a 4% increase in women's employment overall.
Child care should factor into any national strategy to ensure the training of skilled workers who will replace Canada's retiring workforce. A universal, affordable, quality child care system will increase access to the kind of care and education we know best supports children while their parents are at work or study. It will help to alleviate the financial burden of the high cost of child care for young families, allowing them to get ahead of the increasing living costs and the stagnating wages.
Every parent hopes to make a better life for their children. Every generation hopes to leave behind a better world. The federal government does have a key role to play in providing the conditions that foster this hope and optimism. You do have a choice in the 2013 federal budget to support young parents to meet the demands of a 21st century economic system that requires their participation. You do have an obligation to support families to be hopeful for themselves, for their children, and for their grandchildren.
Thank you.