Thank you.
I am a second-generation child care advocate. I work for the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, Ontario's advocacy organization for policy and funding, with the aim to secure a universal, high-quality, not-for-profit early learning and child care system. I'm excited now to be one of the directors of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada.
In the 1980s, before and after I was born, my parents were part of the young movement fighting for affordable, accessible child care. Access to quality child care allowed my parents to pursue higher education and employment. My mother completed her Ph.D. and moved on to a career as a university professor. Beyond that, access to child care gave me quality early learning opportunities, socialization, and exposure to the amazing diversity of downtown Toronto.
My parents were part of the strong movement that has grown over the last 30 years of advocacy organizations, building from the grassroots across the country, united with labour unions and social justice groups, with the CCAAC at the lead. We have known for decades that the economic prosperity of not only women but our country as a whole depends on the creation of a national child care system.
It has been 25 years since the director of the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment called child care “the ramp that provides equal access to the workforce for mothers”. We even have domestic proof of this ramp. In Quebec, 70,000 more mothers are in the paid workforce as a result of their universal, affordable child care system.
In Quebec, child care for all families is just $7 a day, compared with fees upwards of $40 to $60 a day in Ontario. Yet here I am today, starting my career and looking forward to my future, and Canada is ranked last among the OECD nations on accessibility to early learning programs. I am ashamed and afraid of what the future will bring for young women like me.
Many countries have decided to invest in high-quality child care and early learning, acknowledging that it is fundamental to women's equality, and the best start for kids. They have also benefited from the huge economic returns, both immediate and long-term, that are achieved from investing in the early years.
I, along with my friends and colleagues, am part of the generation bearing the brunt of years of government cutbacks and a recent recession that has decimated the job market. We struggle to find employment and are left with huge student debt. Yet how can we do either if we cannot find high-quality child care? How are we supposed to afford it?
My darling niece Charlotte is a year old and one of the four out of five Canadian children without access to a licensed child care space. I do not want her to be fighting for affordable child care when she's grown up and thinking about her future.
At work I talk to countless parents, and the stories are all the same. Child care is too expensive, there's not enough of it, and despite the hard work and training, the staff working in the field—mostly women—are often underpaid and undervalued.
Twenty-six years ago the task force from this very committee declared child care a fundamental support service. It is time for progress. The lack of support for and from Status of Women Canada for research and advocacy has made it difficult for organizations like the CCAAC to maintain strong networks, do the kind of extensive research necessary for good policy-making, and build capacity to give voice to the needs of parents.
This committee can and should play a leadership role in calling for a closer examination of the crisis in child care and its impact on Canadian women, children, and families.
