Resources
Analysis: Canada’s Multilateral Early Learning Child Care Framework Agreement and the bilateral funding agreements
Canada’s Multilateral Early Learning Child Care Framework Agreement and the bilateral funding agreements between the Government of Canada and the provinces and territories: what do they say and how to they stack up? Child Care Now has analyzed the Multilateral Early...
The Affordable Child Care for All Plan
Making affordable, high-quality early learning and child care (ELCC) available to all families will grow the economy, promote gender equality, increase women’s labour force participation and enhance children’s well-being. The federal government must play a leadership...
Early Learning and Child Care: Essential for Women’s Economic Security
Today in Canada, women cannot have economic security without paid employment outside of the home. To get access to paid employment, women with children need access to affordable early learning and child care services women—and those services must be high-quality and...
The Growth of For-Profit Child Care in Canada
Rapid growth since 2006 For-profit child care—large corporate-type, regional chain and single-owner operations—has grown rapidly in Canada since 2006. Before 2004, the share of total spaces operated as for-profit entities had been dropping steadily, down to 20 per...
Canada’s New Early Learning and Child Care Framework
On Jun 12, 2017 the federal government announced a Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework (MFA) which sets the foundation for federal, provincial and territorial governments to work together “toward a shared long-term vision where all children can...
Why For-Profit Child Care is Not the Solution
Profit-making in child care gives rise to four main concerns: 1) the quality of programs is eroded by the drive to make profit; 2) the diversion of public funds to profit-making is an “inefficient” approach to expanding quality child care and making it more affordable...
How Early Learning and Child Care is Organized in Canada
It’s complicated Each of Canada’s jurisdictions—10 provinces, three territories—has several programs for child care and early childhood education. Theses programs tend to have multiple objectives, such as “giving children the best start in life,” school readiness,...
Types of Child Care in Canada
All provinces/territories license regulated child care services according to their provincial legislation and regulations. Regulated child care services include: centre-based full-day child care regulated family child care school-aged child care most...
What is High-Quality Early Learning and Child Care and how is it Achieved?
In the last few decades, as early learning and child care (ELCC) has become more widespread, questions have emerged about what high-quality care is and what factors impact quality. Today, there is abundant research literature about the characteristics, correlates,...
Why Child Care Markets don’t Work for Anyone
What is a child care market? Child Care markets are the consequence of governments taking limited interest in, or influence on, how child care is set up, maintained and delivered. In a child care market, parents who need early learning and child care services assume...
Unregulated Child Care
Today, there is an enormous gap between the number of children of parents in the paid workforce and the availability of regulated child care that is safe, trustworthy, affordable, convenient and of high quality. Thus, many parents across Canada use unregulated child...
How should Early Learning and Child Care be Funded in Canada?
As the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has observed: "Significant public funding is necessary to support sustainable and equitable early childhood education. Without this, a shortage of good quality programs, unequal access and segregation...