You're correct. The costs are extremely high, and for many families the option of having one person stay home and take care of the children is not viable. We know while the wage gap between men and women has narrowed, the salary gap over a lifetime has not. That is usually because women take time out of the workforce and forgo advancement in employment. I think if we saw men taking up more of the child care responsibilities, we might be in a different situation, but we're not seeing that. At the same time, women surpassed men as graduates of universities in 1990. You have a very educated female population. As public policy you want them to have labour force attachment. You don't want them forgoing their careers.
On May 28th, 2015. See this statement in context.