Child care has been left out of the federal government’s budget plan even though it acknowledges that the high cost of child care is a putting employment, home-ownership, training and education out of the reach of many parents, especially mothers.
“We want to see an increase in federal funds directed at lowering parent fees, expanding licensed child care and lifting the wages and working conditions of the child care workforce,” said Morna Ballantyne, Executive Director of Child Care Now, Canada’s national child care advocacy organization.
“Not getting this in Budget 2019 means we will work even harder in the lead up to the October federal election to win the support of the political parties support for our proposed affordable child care plan,” she added.
The Affordable Child Care for All Plan was released by Child Care Now and other organizations on March 8, 2019, International Women’s Day. It calls for specific federal measures to ensure all children in Canada under the age of 6 can have access to affordable, high-quality, licensed child care regardless of where they live. The measures include:
- Enacting federal child care legislation enshrining the right to early childhood education and care
- Increasing federal spending on early childhood education and care by $1 billion each year, over ten years, to fund a dramatic increase in the supply of affordable licensed not-for-profit child care
- Supporting the development of a workforce strategy to increase the number of trained early childhood educators and address the current crisis of high staff turnover as a result of inadequate wages
To show your support, send a message to the federal party leaders asking them to publicly commit to supporting the Affordable Child Care for All Plan.
