Human Resources committee  What we know is the development outcomes are always better when the quality is higher. We also know that the working conditions and learning conditions contribute to high quality. If you have good working conditions and good compensation systems in place, the outcomes will be better development.

Human Resources committee  Well, we certainly don't want to decrease access. We want to try to maintain the current supply and expand on it, but when we're looking at how we expand, we have to think about the kinds of strategies that are going to work. In the past, what governments have done is exactly what you're proposing to do: to hope that individuals will be incentivized, primarily through the profit motive, to set up shop.

Human Resources committee  Well, I think the other witness from Quebec, in her testimony, gave a very good example of what happens. In Quebec, we actually have three systems. We have a government-supported not-for-profit system, a government-supported for-profit sector, and then a private system that is supported through tax credits by giving money directly to parents.

Human Resources committee  The position of our organization is that existing for-profit providers—which I assume is what you're getting at—that are licensed should be able to access the federal funding. We don't support the expansion of public support for unlicensed child care. We don't think the federal funding should be used to expand the for-profit sector.

Human Resources committee  We fully support increasing access through the expansion of licensed child care. However, I would disagree with your premise that it's not possible to make licensed child care accessible to all without resorting to funding a for-profit sector. We know from other countries that, in fact, it is very possible to achieve a universal child care system of a very high quality exclusively through expanding, in a very deliberate and conscious way, the provision of not-for-profit and public child care.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for inviting me to appear before your committee. I'm a member of the National Advisory Council on Early Learning and Child Care, but I speak to you today as the executive director of Child Care Now, Canada's national child care advocacy organization. Early childhood education in Canada is far from what it should be.

Status of Women committee  Thanks. I think you were specifically asking what the difference is between what we have now and publicly funded child care. Essentially what we have now is that we don't have a system. What I tried to explain in my presentation is that essentially governments have handed over responsibility for child care to the markets.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for inviting me to testify this afternoon. Child Care Now, also known as the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, was founded in 1982 to act on behalf of organizations and individuals who want high-quality, affordable and inclusive early learning and child care to be available for all families and all children, regardless of where they live and regardless of their circumstances.

Finance committee  Yes, sure. I too was sitting in this chair 32 years ago when I had just become a parent for the first time. I'm a grandmother, and here we are still addressing the same problems. It's frustrating. We will see what happens in Ontario but I think it's going to be very instructive to the federal government and to Parliament because the bilateral agreements were signed.

Finance committee  Yes, it would be an excellent recommendation if the objective of the committee is to come up with recommendations that would contribute to economic growth, to gender equality and to the well-being of families and particularly of young children under the age of six who are lacking in adequate services.

Finance committee  To a great extent, it would depend on the GDP. Right now we're at 0.04%, so we have a long way to go to reach the benchmark. We think that we could get there with both federal and provincial support. We're not relying only on federal spending to reach the 1%, but also provincial and territorial investments.

Finance committee  The 11-year plan that was announced by the federal government in 2017.... Right now we're at $540 million. The problem is that it doesn't ramp up. It will ramp up more, according to the plan, in the last five years. Even then, we only get to just under $900 million by the end of the 11 years.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for this invitation. Child Care Now, which is also known as the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, acts on behalf of a broad range of voices across Canada who want high-quality, affordable, inclusive early learning and child care for families and all children.