by Emily Davies, Features Editor The Journal, Queens University
Within the larger context of public policy, social policy is motivated by what is considered basic human needs. By prioritizing certain needs through legislation, it informs what society’s values. Beginning in the 1960s during what historians have since termed the “Liberal Era” (post-Diefenbaker and pre-Mulroney in Canadian political history) the federal government has invested in social programs that provide for or subsidize the cost of satisfying these basic needs, and extend access to these services—regardless of socio-economic status. Legislative landmarks such as the Canadian Assistance Plan, Canadian Pension Plan, and the Canadian Medical Care Act (all passed in 1966) contributed to the emergence of Canada as a welfare state. While services such as health insurance and old-age pensions have been recognized by the Canadian government as deserving of federal attention and financial assistance, others remain absent from the national agenda. The care and education of young children remains, for the most part, the sole responsibility of parents, who must reconcile the tension between working and raising a child. As part of the ongoing tradition of the welfare state, it is necessary that the federal government recognize this problem and implement a solution modeled on reforms that have benefited Canadians in the past.
Another historically important development was the 1967 implementation of a federal-provincial post-secondary education transfer program, which involved the combination of tax points and cash, with the federal contribution equal to 50% of total provincial post-secondary education operating costs. This legislation was a means of addressing the educational needs of the maturing baby boom. The Canadian Health and Social Transfer, which in 2004 would become the Canadian Social Transfer (CST), the current federal government transfer payment program in support of post-secondary education, social assistance and social services, was initiated in 1995. Under the CST’s auspices fall the categories of “early childhood development” and “early learning and child care.” According to the Childcare Resource and Research Unit’s (CRRU) eighth bi-annual report released on September 15, 2009, the federal government’s total transfer funds designated for regulated childcare had decreased to $600 million in 2009, compared to $950 million in 2006-07. This occurred while, according to the report, 77 per cent of working mothers had children aged three to five. In addition, there were only enough regulated childcare spaces for 20 per cent of children up to five years.
In 1997, government subsidized childcare was implemented in the province of Quebec, where families only paid a cost of $5 per day, per child. Over a decade later, parents now pay a total cost of $7 per day for children under the age of 12. Money saved by parents on childcare can be invested in adequate nutrition, education, clothing and furthering general quality of life instead. This system also reduces the number of young “latchkey” children who arrive home from school to an empty household or are taken care of by their older pre-adolescent siblings. Outside of the Quebec system, 27 municipalities in Ontario, three in Alberta and four in Saskatchewan operate public child-care programs, offering low-cost, or free day-care for those who require it.
In his report “Our Best Future: Early Learning in Ontario,” which was released in June of 2009, the province’s special advisor on early learning, Dr. Charles E. Pascal, recommended that the Ontario government implement community-based extended day and year-round programs at schools for children aged 6-12 when they are requested by 15 or more families. His report also recommends that many provincially run “Early Years Centres” be consolidated into municipally run “Best Start” child and family centres, either administered by or partnered with schools, in order to provide “subsidized flexible full-day, full-year, and part-time child care for children up to age four”. While neither of these recommendations have been met by a financial commitment, the Ontario government did respond to Pascal’s finding that full-day kindergarten programs create more successful students. Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that his province would be spending $500 million over two years on kindergarten extension, starting in 2010.
This decision on the part of the Ontario government may signal that the political leaders of Canada’s most populous province now regard early childhood development to be of increasing importance. It’s time that the federal government show the same concern as its provinces and implement a national program designed to provide the necessary funding, perhaps along similar lines as post-secondary education, for a new generation of Canadians to receive the best quality of education possible, at every age. If the federal government makes post-secondary education a national priority, then early childhood education must also have a place in Canada’s welfare state.
Although Canada does need to reform on subsidized child care I personally believe that it does not just stop there.
The school curriculum for children in younger grades, which is arguably the most impressionable time during their academic careers lack the basic math and literacy skills required for daily life.
Childhood is the foundation for life and if the proper education and care is not given then the dwindling chances of success will progress on to future generations.