Minding our future: Canada's largely informal child-care system falls far behind what is offered in several European countries.

A report released in October 2004 described Canada's child-care system as underfunded, inefficient, and failing, with a patchwork of fragmented services. The report was published by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It says that, while other industrialized countries are pouring money into early-education systems for pre-school aged children, the only province in Canada not faltering is Quebec.

Researchers found that Canadian programs focus more on providing babysitting than early development and learning. By contrast, they said other OECD countries "have been progressing toward publicly managed, universal services focussed on the development of young children." They found, for example, that while more Canadian mothers with young children work outside the home than in most other countries, our governments invest less than half what other developed nations devote, on average, to early childhood education. There are too few regulated child-care spaces in the country--only enough for about 20 percent of children under six with working parents--while other countries are providing publicly funded systems of early learning for growing numbers of children: in Belgium 63 percent of young children are in regulated child care; in Denmark, 78 percent; in France, 69 percent; in Portugal, 40 percent; and, in the United Kingdom, 60 percent. While the research team saw several Canadian child-care centres that were top quality, they found many others that were not.

And, those who work in the field often are underpaid, poorly trained people working in badly equipped centres. Meanwhile, only 42 percent of graduates in early-childhood education work in their chosen field. The rest opt out largely because they don't want to work for low salaries at second-rate child-care centres, according to one report. In Winnipeg recently (March 2005), the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union delivered 10,000 postcards to the province's family services minister to focus attention on the plight of early childhood educators. The postcard campaign pointed out that "The ECEs (early childhood educators) who care, nurture, and educate tens of thousands of Manitoba children are leaving the early childhood education system in droves because of substandard wages and poor benefits."

In our society, people who look after zoo animals are paid considerably more than people who look after our children. Fulltime child-care workers earn an average of $22,500 a year; keepers at the Calgary Zoo make between $16 and $24 an hour--$33,280 to $49,920 a year.

Even though child-care workers are poorly paid, the service is too expensive for many families. They must choose between trying to live on one income (not easy in today's world) or placing their children in cheap and unlicensed day care where safety might be an issue. OECD researchers said parental costs for child-care in Canada are too high, ranging from 34 percent to 82 percent of total costs. The average across the country, excluding Quebec, is just under 50 percent of costs compared to a maximum 15 percent parental contribution in Finland, or about 25 percent across Europe. Added to that is an inefficient subsidy system with widely varying eligibility criteria, accessed by only 22 percent of lone parents and about five percent of married mothers from low-income families.

The OECD also criticized Canada for viewing child care as a private responsibility rather than a public entitlement for all children as it is in most European countries.

Quebec has followed a more European model with a government-subsidized $7-a-day childcare program that is the envy of parents everywhere in Canada.

It was in 1996 that the Quebec government brought in a new family policy and developed an early childhood program for children 0-12 years of age. At the core of the family policy was the then $5-a-day child-care program, which started to be phased in in 1997 and by 2000, it was available to children aged 0-4. The government continued to increase the supply of spaces, wages of educators, and its childcare budget substantially. Quebec became the only province in Canada to establish a universal system of child care for its youngest citizens.

In April 2003, Premier Jean Charest and the Liberal Party replaced the Parti Quebecois in Quebec. A month later, Mr. Charest's government announced its plan to slow expansion of the child-care program, increase parent fees, and open development of new spaces to the for-profit sector. In June 2003, a large protest took place and a petition with more than 100,000 signatures calling for the protection of the system was presented to the government.

Two months later, Laurel Rothman, National Coordinator at Campaign 2000 wrote a letter to Premier Charest, appealling to him to reconsider the proposed changes. The organization described the province's child-care program as the cornerstone of progressive family policy in Quebec. It called it "a unique, effective approach to social policy that will reap long-term benefits for families and communities; which derives strong support from communities across the economic spectrum; and, which distinguishes our approach to creating a caring society from that of our neighbours to the south. Indeed, we view investing in universally accessible, educational child care as a key component of progressive social policy which can ensure a healthy, well-educated citizenry, support women's equality in the workplace and beyond, assist in reducing child and family poverty, and provide a welcome for newcomer children."

The author also noted that "an important decrease in the number of children living in poverty in Quebec from 346,500 (21.6%) in 1999 down to 293,000 (18.7%) in 2000 coincided with the expansion of the universally accessible child-care system."

Ottawa has promised through many elections to set up a national child-care program. In its February 2005 budget, the federal government announced it would put aside $5 billion over the following five years for such a system. But, the feds want to establish national standards while the provinces want the money but they don't want Ottawa dictating how it's to be used. A federal/provincial conference the same month broke up without agreement.

Meanwhile, parents outside Quebec continue to scramble to find regulated child-care spaces for their children. In 1981, there were only enough regulated spaces to serve about 10 percent of Canadian children of working mothers; in 2001, regulated child-care spaces served about 12 percent of them. And, financial barriers remain as eligibility levels for subsidies have dropped in several provinces while others have not been adjusted to the rising cost of living. These are the observations of Marcel Lauziere, President of the Canadian Council on Social Development, who cites a 2001 survey that found the financial burden of child care was 14 percent of average family income in Newfoundland, and 20 percent in British Columbia.

A lot of Canadians think a national child-care plan is a good idea: a 2001 poll done by the Canadian Child Care Federation found that 90 percent of Canadians agreed or strongly agreed that we should have one. And, 86 percent think it's possible to have a publicly funded child-care system that makes quality childcare available to all Canadian children. That's a big change from 1982. Back then a Gallup poll showed that almost half of Canadians surveyed (49 percent) thought working mothers and their families should be responsible for their own child-care arrangements, and only 41 percent thought the government should share this responsibility.

But research has shown that publicly funded child-care is better all round. The results of a Canada-wide study, released in January 2005, found that non-profit child-care centres outscore their commercial counterparts in all aspects of early learning and care. The study by two University of Toronto economists, Gordon Cleveland and Michael Drashinsky, concluded that non-profit centres are better regardless of the province where the centres are located and child population served. The study found that quality differences between non-profit and commercial classrooms were greatest in:

* Personal care provided to children, such as diapering, rest, and meals;

* The use of materials, activities, and teaching interactions that affect language and thought development;

* The way staff interacts with children, including supervision and discipline, encouragement, warmth, and respect; and,

* Issues specific to parents and staff, such as the level of staff communication to parents about their children, and support for the personal and professional needs of staff.

These researchers also found that providing early childhood education and care (ECEC) benefits society as a whole. For every dollar the government spends to enhance child care, two dollars of benefits result, half of which come from mothers' increased labour force participation.

As the Canadian Council on Social Development sees it, Canadians now believe that ECEC gives a big boost to their children's development. "Study after study has shown that quality early education and care enhances development both in the long- and short-term," says the Council. "The more attention, education and care that children get, the more positive the effect. Quality ECEC particularly enhances the development of children who face adverse conditions at home. It has even been shown to decrease eventual crime rates and increase income potential."

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. In the Nordic countries, local authorities have the power to raise taxes devoted to supplementing the state allocation for health, social welfare, and early education services. In Belgium and Italy, about one percent of social security and/or corporate tax is channelled toward child care. In Finland, the alcohol tax has been used for many years to supplement early childhood services such as out-of-school care. Discuss alternative funding methods that you think would work in Canada.

2. The issue of providing cash benefits for child care has been controversial in Finland and Sweden. Feminist groups in particular and women in the Social Democratic parties say the practice undermines publicly subsidized child care, and encourages women to drop out of the labour force. That, in turn, can have a major impact upon womens' skill retention, confidence, and employability, which affects lifetime earnings, economic independence, and retirement income. Those who support direct financial subsidies to parents for child care say it offers choice. Opponents say it limits choice by diverting funds from child-care services. Have students debate this issue and come up with a system they think would work best.

FACT FILE

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child names childcare as one of the fundamental rights all children should enjoy.

FACT FILE

Nearly half of Canadian parents surveyed said they had a hard time finding high quality, affordable child-care.

FACT FILE

Internationally, all members of the UN General Assembly committed themselves in 2002 to the development and implementation of national early childhood development policies and programs.

FACT FILE

Belgium, Denmark, France, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K. enroll about 90 percent of their children by the age of four in free, early education services.

Websites

Canadian Child Care Federation--http://www. cccf-fcsge.ca/home_en.html

Canadian Council on Social Development--http://www. ccsd.ca

Working in Sweden--http:// www.scandinavica.com / culture/society/working.htm

RELATED ARTICLE: The Nordic way.

Scandinavian countries, some of which instituted paid maternity leave in the 19th century, generally see child care as a shared responsibility of parents and the state. They have pioneered a range of innovative ideas --including guaranteed rights to child care, shared access to parental leave, 'daddy leave' and cash payments for home-based care

In her 2002 book, Working Parents and the Welfare State: Family Change and Policy Reform in Scandinavia (ISBN: 0521571294), Arnlaug Leira explores three types of child care policy. She looks a government-funded programs, which primarily support the 'dual-earner' family model in which both parents have a substantial amount of paid work. The second policy is parental leave, and the third policy area is cash assistance for child care.

The author says there is no single model of family policy in Scandinavia. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland each have distinctive traditions and policies regarding families. But, in general, publicly supported child care is seen not just as a parental entitlement but as a service with important educational, social, and developmental benefits for children.

As well as maternity, paternity, and parental leave, there are generous wage-linked benefits for the first ten to 15 months of a child's life. For the last 20 years several Nordic countries have extended the period of leave, calling it child-care leave. In Finland, for example, this extended leave comes with a cash benefit equal to about 40 percent of a mother's wage, which is available until the child reaches age three. (Most parents still return to work when their child is 12 to 18 months old, as they have the option of placing their child in a municipal child-care centre.)

RELATED ARTICLE: Funding and accountability needed.

Research shows a major factor for success in school is a child's exposure to learning in the early years. According to one report, remedial education for children with poor early learning environments is costing $2.5 billion a year in Canada.

In November 2004, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) released a paper detailing a 15-year schedule for substantial new funding and legislated standards for a national child-care program.

From Patchwork to Framework: A Child Care Strategy for Canada, calls on the federal government to commit at least one percent of Gross Domestic Product, or $10 billion, for the new program within 15 years. CCAAC says that figure is a modest investment for the one-third of Canadian youngsters under six, compared to the six percent of GDP devoted to educating older children.

The organization says the country needs a coherent system with governments integrating their service networks beyond the QUAD (Quality, Universal, Affordable, Developmental) principles outlined by the federal government.

CCAAC also says funds should go only to public/non-profit programs, and wants those administering programs to be required to report annually to Parliament, Legislatures, and the public. Current federal transfers to the provinces for early childhood services require only loose reporting with no penalties for non-compliance. The CCAAC recommends that funding to provinces and territories depend on their meeting "standards, service, and quality goals and timelines outlined in legislation." It also recommends expanding parental and family leave programs