Early childhood resources fills less than a quarter of the needs. (Children & Families).

OTTAWA -- "There are not enough ECEC resources to accommodate even a quarter of children in Canada who are under the age of six.", a report Diversity or Disparity? Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada indicates.

Campaign 2000, a nationwide coalition of 85 national and community organizations says that early childhood education and care in Canada should be publicly funded and available to every child whose parents want it says a report released in October.

Further, the report states that the parents of half of those children are working and many would use a "regulated setting" if it was available. The report also recognizes that there are some parents who prefer not to use an early childhood centre, and use family members or unregulated community caregivers instead. But it stressed that most families, where one parent is in the paid labour force, want their children to have the opportunity to attend a part-day preschool program.

Noting that such preschool programs are often not an option due to lack of availability, the report states that availability is not the only issue. Affordability is often a barrier that prohibits "many moderate to low income families from enrolling their children in ECEC services even if the spaces are available in their communities."

As well, the early childcare that is available is often uneven in quality from province to province due to wages paid to ECEC workers. Citing these wages as a "significant factor in quality", the report notes that they "lag far behind the average wage for all sectors", and inhibit recruitment and retention of employees.

Stressing that Canadian children deserve better, Campaign 2000 also notes that it will be releasing a second report on early childhood education care shortly.

www.campaign2000.ca