Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Every morning I work in taking care of my two-year-old. Every afternoon I work for Cardus, a not-for-profit think tank. The federal government thinks only one of these activities is worthy of federal support. Some afternoons my husband takes care of our two-year-old and other afternoons a paid helper does the same.
Again, for those whose primary concern is increasing GDP, only the waged work contributes, but child care is the care of a child no matter who does it. For the majority of parents and children, there is little to gain and much to lose from plans for national day care.
I have researched child care for 15 years. Today I'd like to comment specifically on federal funding allocations in light of the budget and a paper I recently co-authored, called “Look Before You Leap: The Real Costs and Complexities of National Daycare”.
Our detailed cost assessment phases in spaces for 70% of children under six over five years and includes staff, capital, training and maintenance costs. All of our assumptions are based on the work of advocates for national day care. However, there are several things they would desire that we were not able to include, making our estimates low. Our low-quality and low-cost estimate rings in at $17 billion annually. The more reasonable estimate rings in at $36.3 billion annually.
I'd like to make three points today. One is that the federal funding amounts are not enough to provide high-quality child care at low cost to all parents or even most parents. This program will not deliver what it promises. The second point is that if it funds only one kind of care—licensed, for-profit care—most parents will experience a loss of care options, increased child care costs or both. Finally, I'll talk about the per-family funding amounts that could be provided were money allocated to children instead of to spaces.
First, the funding levels are woefully inadequate for a high-quality universal program. This level of funding guarantees low-quality care, inaccessible care or both.
Our low-cost estimate is only slightly less than the federal budget allocates should cost-sharing with the provinces actually materialize. This low-cost estimate is based on the worst staff-child ratios in the country, which are those currently legally allowable in Quebec. To give context, those ratios allow five infants for one staff member. Do you know any parents of quintuplets who do not get assistance? Neither do I. This helps us to understand why these are poor ratios. Research shows poor ratios directly affect the quality of care for children.
Our high-cost estimate rings in at $36.3 billion. If the federal funding amount of $9.2 billion annually remains the same, the provinces will need to cover the gap. In our report, we itemize what each province would need to pay in the creation of a truly national day care system. In Ontario, this means covering $9.5 billion annually. In Alberta, it's $3.4 billion annually, and in British Columbia, it's $2.6 billion annually, to give three examples.
It's likely that this new child care cost-sharing agreement will land child care in the same kind of ongoing political argument as other federal-provincial cost-sharing agreements. For example, the federal budget 2021 did not provide the provinces with any additional health care funding, despite the ongoing global pandemic and the requests of premiers.
My second point is that budget 2021 is not enough to provide a quality system, but it is enough to destabilize the existing ecosystem of care. Subsidizing one type of care at the expense of all others wipes out the other options. The significant decrease in parent fees in one part of the sector will inflate demand for that type of care. The provinces will struggle to meet the new demand, while other providers will be unable to compete. When Quebec introduced its provincial system, private care crumbled. A tax credit was provided about 10 years later to entice private providers back in, and Quebec is still dealing with some aspects of unequal access.
After budget 2021 came down, private providers—who all happen to be female entrepreneurs—told us that they and their colleagues were working on exit strategies from their work, citing feeling unwanted or alternatively that they didn't want to be part of the government's plan.
What is the cost of re-establishing care options when the existing ecosystem of care collapses? A government-created day care space shortage is indeed the responsibility of government to fix, and it comes with its own price tag.
Third and finally, funding parents avoids the quagmire of low-quality systems that help the few and not the many. The $9.2 billion annually as a per-child amount for children under six would be almost $4,000 dollars annually.
I’ll conclude by returning to the beginning and the idea that a family’s unpaid time with their child or children is not work, not valuable, and offers no return. I think this is a short-sighted, technocratic approach to child care that fails to address Canadian families’ wishes and needs. There are fortunately better, more equitable and more efficient ways to meet those needs and simultaneously respect Canadian diversity.
Thank you.