Australia's "child care Wal-Mart" heading for Canada, expert says.

OTTAWA -- The "Wal-Mart of child care" is heading for Canada, Australian child care expert Lynne Wannan warned Canadians during a three week speaking tour of Canada. She told her audiences that the ABC Learning Centres control 25% of the child care market in Australia and is now looking to expand into Canada and other countries.

Her three-week visit was sponsored by the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada as part of its campaign to influence the federal and provincial governments to focus, the proposed national child care initiative on supporting community-based, non-profit child care services.

The federal government has made $5-billion available over the next five years to the provinces and territories for licensed child care. The debate now is whether governments in Canada will make funding equally available to for profit and community-based child care.

The Canadian Child Care Association said that there will be too few restrictions on who can receive these funds and that a large part will be used to pay the profits of commercial organizations and will limit the funds available to community based services.

Australia's national government introduced funding changes ten years ago that enabled commercial companies to enter a profitable market, Lynne Wannan said. Australia's Child care operators now include real estate developers, dot.com tycoons, professional athletes and stock market promoters.

Several companies have merged in recent years into ABC Learning Centres that now control 25% of the child care spaces and is led by its Canadian-born ceo, Eddy Groves. Groves has his eye on the opportunities the new federal financing of child care might provide in Canada.

According to Wannan, the proliferation of commercial child care in Australia has resulted in restricted access for immigrants, aboriginal populations, children with special needs, rural and low income families; and community-based child care programs. Small owner/operators are being squeezed out. More state expenditures on monitoring and prosecuting violations occur; and working conditions of child care workers are poorer.

Lynne Wannan is a member of the National Children's Services Reference Group, which advises the Australian Minister for Children, and is chair of the National Association of Community Based Children's Services of Australia. She has served as a social policy analyst for state and local governments and as an advisor to the child care sector.

613-725-9094