Mr. Speaker, I rise to pursue my concern that the cost of child care in this country is punitive for families and detrimental to women's economic justice in this country. Fees are more than $1,200 a month in Toronto. For my little sister, the cost of child care is more than the cost of rent, $1,400 in Vancouver.
This past week, the OECD was here on Parliament Hill investigating Canada's commitment to its feminist agenda and its gender lens on its policies and budget processes. The OECD has observed that:
Affordability and quality in childcare overall in Canada is still an issue, forcing many women to drop out of the labour market or reduce their working hours during childrearing years. This affects women's earning levels: full-time employed women in Canada earn on average 19% less than men.
That was reflected also by a study that the OECD did of Canadian families. The report found that families in Canada spend almost one-quarter of their income on child care, a ratio that is much higher than in other parts of the world. It found that Canada is among the most expensive for child care among its 35 members. This was reinforced for me in a meeting last week in the riding with James Brierley, who is the B.C. young worker coordinator for the Public Service Alliance of Canada. He said:
Monies currently allocated in the 2017 federal budget are not sufficient and as we both know, a national universal childcare system that provides affordable, quality childcare to all families in Canada and to pay Early Childhood Educators a living wage will take increased federal funding.
Mr. Brierley noted his own personal story. He said:
With another child due in January these costs are set to rise to $1770 per month for 2 children. I have had to discuss with my wife if we can afford the family we always wanted thanks to a system that commoditizes childcare in the market environment. As a family that works decent government jobs with a household income of over $120,000 per year this was not something I anticipated to be an issue...over 55% of our household income will be allocated to childcare and housing costs....
When will we have a childcare system that will be the envy of other countries as the liberal government is so proud to say that Canada is the envy of the world. BC numbers close to the top for child poverty. Its time for this federal government to take a stand on childcare and stand up for working Canadians!!
This lines up also with a TD Bank study saying that, “investing in early [childhood] education programs [would] help Canada address the major economic threats [it's] facing over the coming decades”, and that the program could pay for itself.
Therefore, I ask the government this once again. When will it heed the advice of the OECD, the TD Bank, and families across the country and invest what the IMF says, that if it puts in $8 billion a year, the program would pay for itself in taxation and additional economic activity as well as being a just thing for families and women in our country?