Mr. Speaker, children deserve a good head start in life. Quality child care supports early learning, an essential first step. It promotes and equalizes opportunities for all children, regardless of income or social background.
One in six Canadian children lives in poverty. More than 50% of single female parents are poor. Dependable affordable child care would improve the lives of these families.
The OECD says that the gender wage gap is the lowest in countries that provide public child care, like France and the Scandinavian countries. Most Canadian women with children under five work outside the home, yet less than 20% of Canadian children have access to regulated child care spaces. In fact, the OECD ranks Canada dead last among 14 countries when it comes to child care.
Previous governments failed to deliver, while cutting corporate taxes. The Conservative government's big tax cut for the banks and oil companies last fall could have created 320,000 child care spaces—