Government-funded child-care should release full potential of female workforce, reduce stress on parents
Some time next year, the federal government is expected to open the tap and begin pouring billions of dollars into a new national child-care strategy that could have human resources implications for decades to come.
Ottawa has pledged to transfer $5 billion to the provinces over the next five years to jump-start the creation of a national child-care plan. The provinces and the federal government agreed in principle to move forward with a national program at a meeting last month. Details are to be worked out early in the new year.
A national system of high quality child care will, claim its champions, not only produce a future generation of more productive workers, but also significantly improve the productivity of the current workforce.
A shortage of high quality, affordable child care is blamed for keeping large numbers of working parents, particularly mothers, from making a full contribution in the workplace because of more, and more protracted, absences. Child-care concerns are also often cited as a major contributor to increased stress levels for working parents.
The provinces and Ottawa have been working toward a national child-care strategy for years, said Nora Spinks, president of Work-Life Harmony Enterprises, a consulting firm specializing in work-life balance. But everyone is on the same page and there is consensus that a national strategy is simply the right thing to do, she said. “Now they are going to the next step.”
Spinks expects the first $1 billion to flow in the next fiscal year beginning in April.
Exactly where, and in what fashion, it will show up is still unclear, but it is likely the child-care system in Quebec is being viewed as a template, she said.
Quebec has been a trailblazer on state-subsidized child care in Canada. In the rest of the country, child care can range from $250 to $1,000 per month. In 1997 Quebec created a program with a goal of giving every parent access to licenced child care at a cost of $5 a day. The Jean Charest government in Quebec has since increased the cost to $7 per day — about $140 per month.
“Does that mean every other province will have $7-a-day day care in a licensed environment? In the short term, no,” said Spinks. “In the long term, will that come? To some degree, yes, but when is hard to predict.”
Nor will the $5 billion from Ottawa completely address child-care shortages. Right now, about 20 per cent of all children of working parents are in licensed child care. “If every single one of those dollars goes into licensed day-care spaces, we would increase access by about six per cent. We would go from 20 per cent to 26 per cent,” said Spinks.
University of Toronto economist Gordon Cleveland said a national child-care program is great news for employers. In the short term, it leads to improved workforce participation and increased productivity. More women will take more permanent, full-time jobs and will be away from the workforce less, he said.
In the long term, it leads to a better supply of skilled and more productive workers. It has been well-documented that high quality child care has a positive impact on development later in life.
In a seminal 1998 study, The Benefits and Costs of Good Child Care, Cleveland and fellow economist Michael Krashinsky concluded that for every $1 spent on a national child-care program, $2 in benefits would be realized.
A national program of quality care for every child could cost as much as $5.3 billion per year, explained Cleveland. Once short- and long-term benefits are calculated, the return would eventually be $10.6 billion per year.
Right now the potential economic contributions of many women are being squandered because they can’t find good child care, said Cleveland.
Many young women in university and college are increasingly willing and eager to move into occupations and fields where women have traditionally been under-represented, like business, medicine and law. This is good for the economy because it is a previously untapped, or at least underutilized, source of skills, knowledge and ability, he said.
“But these women are going to face a choice: Either I am going to give up my job in law or medicine, or move to part-time work to have my kids. Or else I don’t have kids. That is the issue these young women face. And we don’t like these choices as a society,” he said.
Most of Europe has already realized that is not a decision working women should be forced to make. That is why the European Union recently agreed to set a new goal for 2010 to provide access to licensed day care for 90 per cent of all children.
“Overwhelmingly, the reason that they are doing that is because of the impact on the employment of women,” he said.
“All of those countries recognize that they have a huge reserve of potential and additional growth and productivity that they can’t unlock without a lot of attention to the public funding of child care.”
Easier access to child care should lead to a more comfortable and productive workforce and likely reduced absenteeism, said Finn Poshcmann, associate director of research and senior policy analyst with the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto. “So there is obviously an upside for employers.”
But there is also a downside for taxpayers in that government-subsidized child care will not be cost effective, he said. When the government starts using taxpayers’ money to deliver a service, the cost never reflects the true value of that service, he said.
When the objective is high quality day care with certified caregivers and a low child-to-staff ratio, inevitably costs will go through the roof, he said.
That is what drove the Charest government in Quebec to raise the cost to parents for day care from $5 to $7 per day, he said.
“Wages have gone up, so costs have gone through the roof,” he said.
Important lessons have been learned from the Quebec experience, said Spinks.
“We learned that high quality child care takes some time. You need to balance the level of excitement and manage expectations,” she said. “And you have to accept that not everybody’s needs will be met overnight.”
Right now there aren’t enough qualified people to fill the caregiver positions, and it takes three years to get a degree in early childhood education. Colleges and universities are acting to increase the supply but it won’t happen overnight, she said.
“If parents expect day-care centres on every corner in the next two or three years, they will be disappointed. But they will have a lot more choice (then they have now),” she said.
Ottawa has pledged to transfer $5 billion to the provinces over the next five years to jump-start the creation of a national child-care plan. The provinces and the federal government agreed in principle to move forward with a national program at a meeting last month. Details are to be worked out early in the new year.
A national system of high quality child care will, claim its champions, not only produce a future generation of more productive workers, but also significantly improve the productivity of the current workforce.
A shortage of high quality, affordable child care is blamed for keeping large numbers of working parents, particularly mothers, from making a full contribution in the workplace because of more, and more protracted, absences. Child-care concerns are also often cited as a major contributor to increased stress levels for working parents.
The provinces and Ottawa have been working toward a national child-care strategy for years, said Nora Spinks, president of Work-Life Harmony Enterprises, a consulting firm specializing in work-life balance. But everyone is on the same page and there is consensus that a national strategy is simply the right thing to do, she said. “Now they are going to the next step.”
Spinks expects the first $1 billion to flow in the next fiscal year beginning in April.
Exactly where, and in what fashion, it will show up is still unclear, but it is likely the child-care system in Quebec is being viewed as a template, she said.
Quebec has been a trailblazer on state-subsidized child care in Canada. In the rest of the country, child care can range from $250 to $1,000 per month. In 1997 Quebec created a program with a goal of giving every parent access to licenced child care at a cost of $5 a day. The Jean Charest government in Quebec has since increased the cost to $7 per day — about $140 per month.
“Does that mean every other province will have $7-a-day day care in a licensed environment? In the short term, no,” said Spinks. “In the long term, will that come? To some degree, yes, but when is hard to predict.”
Nor will the $5 billion from Ottawa completely address child-care shortages. Right now, about 20 per cent of all children of working parents are in licensed child care. “If every single one of those dollars goes into licensed day-care spaces, we would increase access by about six per cent. We would go from 20 per cent to 26 per cent,” said Spinks.
University of Toronto economist Gordon Cleveland said a national child-care program is great news for employers. In the short term, it leads to improved workforce participation and increased productivity. More women will take more permanent, full-time jobs and will be away from the workforce less, he said.
In the long term, it leads to a better supply of skilled and more productive workers. It has been well-documented that high quality child care has a positive impact on development later in life.
In a seminal 1998 study, The Benefits and Costs of Good Child Care, Cleveland and fellow economist Michael Krashinsky concluded that for every $1 spent on a national child-care program, $2 in benefits would be realized.
A national program of quality care for every child could cost as much as $5.3 billion per year, explained Cleveland. Once short- and long-term benefits are calculated, the return would eventually be $10.6 billion per year.
Right now the potential economic contributions of many women are being squandered because they can’t find good child care, said Cleveland.
Many young women in university and college are increasingly willing and eager to move into occupations and fields where women have traditionally been under-represented, like business, medicine and law. This is good for the economy because it is a previously untapped, or at least underutilized, source of skills, knowledge and ability, he said.
“But these women are going to face a choice: Either I am going to give up my job in law or medicine, or move to part-time work to have my kids. Or else I don’t have kids. That is the issue these young women face. And we don’t like these choices as a society,” he said.
Most of Europe has already realized that is not a decision working women should be forced to make. That is why the European Union recently agreed to set a new goal for 2010 to provide access to licensed day care for 90 per cent of all children.
“Overwhelmingly, the reason that they are doing that is because of the impact on the employment of women,” he said.
“All of those countries recognize that they have a huge reserve of potential and additional growth and productivity that they can’t unlock without a lot of attention to the public funding of child care.”
Easier access to child care should lead to a more comfortable and productive workforce and likely reduced absenteeism, said Finn Poshcmann, associate director of research and senior policy analyst with the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto. “So there is obviously an upside for employers.”
But there is also a downside for taxpayers in that government-subsidized child care will not be cost effective, he said. When the government starts using taxpayers’ money to deliver a service, the cost never reflects the true value of that service, he said.
When the objective is high quality day care with certified caregivers and a low child-to-staff ratio, inevitably costs will go through the roof, he said.
That is what drove the Charest government in Quebec to raise the cost to parents for day care from $5 to $7 per day, he said.
“Wages have gone up, so costs have gone through the roof,” he said.
Important lessons have been learned from the Quebec experience, said Spinks.
“We learned that high quality child care takes some time. You need to balance the level of excitement and manage expectations,” she said. “And you have to accept that not everybody’s needs will be met overnight.”
Right now there aren’t enough qualified people to fill the caregiver positions, and it takes three years to get a degree in early childhood education. Colleges and universities are acting to increase the supply but it won’t happen overnight, she said.
“If parents expect day-care centres on every corner in the next two or three years, they will be disappointed. But they will have a lot more choice (then they have now),” she said.
