Canadian HR Reporter Weekly

3 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 March 21, 2018 the period and have a better and more complete view of what the policy actually accomplished, which is much less than what Mr. Poloz is suggesting," said Lammam. e Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) — implemented in 2006 by former prime minister Stephen Harper's government to provide monthly payments to parents — is a much more effective way to help low- income parents better afford child care, he said. "A model that puts the decisions and choices to parents, I think, is a much stronger model than one that relies on a very institutionalized, one-size-fits-all system," said Lammam. "(Quebec) hasn't solved the access problem — some families, particularly lower- income families, have a harder time getting into those facilities." "e Quebec experience really should make us cautious in other provinces and certainly nationally about these one-size-fits-all models." Feds earmark $7 billion In 2017, the federal government earmarked $7 billion, spread out over 10 years, for provincial governments to implement their own programs. Alberta announced a $25-per-day pilot program, the British Columbia gov- ernment promised a $10-per-day childcare program, and Ontario vowed to deliver 100,000 new daycare spaces by 2022. Ontario has already implemented a limited form of daycare by offering full-day kindergarten, said Spinks. "ey've attached it to the school system by introducing full-day junior kindergarten, with before- and after-school programming available." But the funds have to come from the deeper pockets of the federal government if they are going to make a difference, said Yussuff. "Almost every province has taken that money trying to figure out how to best use it to ensure they can start to build some kind of system within their provinces," he said. "What the federal government has rolled out in terms of their funding is a good start, but you've got to do more and you've got to work with the provinces (on) how we can make this a national system." But can Canada afford to fund such a scheme? "Affordability is always a loaded question because when we choose to make an investment in the lives of young children, we know there are significant social and economic gains both immediately and in the mid- and long-term," said Spinks. "is country made a commitment decades ago, centuries ago, to invest public resources for public good in education; what we're talking about here is dropping the age at which that investment will begin." More data and study is needed before committing more funds to child care, said Lammam. "We've relied mostly on anecdotes to guide us on this and I think that's the wrong way to approach that. We need to be more careful and evidence-based in understanding: What is the problem?" he said. "We need to focus on the data before we get into any conclusion to policy recommendations." For example, there was no shortage of available daycare spaces in B.C. in 2017, according to a report from Cardus, a think tank with an office in Vancouver that used government data to assess how many spaces were available. "Quite surprisingly, the researchers found that there was about a 30 per cent vacancy rate. So, contrary to this notion that there is this widespread problem, they found that there's actually a significant amount of spots available in the province. And even in some parts of the province where there's more density and more demand for daycare services, they still found vacancy rates, even for high-demand age ranges, like toddlers," said Lammam. "If we don't have a massive shortage of daycare spaces, it really doesn't warrant very significant public policy intervention." 'Perfect storm' brewing But there is a perfect storm brewing, said Spinks. "e aging workforce… is going to result in a need for recruiting young workers. e older workers, the baby boomers who are heading into retirement or nearing the end of their careers, are the grandparents of today and they're going to want supports and assistance for their grandchildren. Whether that's grandparent leave or whether that's high-quality, early learning and child care, we're going to see, in this perfect storm, political interest in early learning and child care," she said. "ose boomer grandparents that want the best for their grandchildren and are prepared to ask for and advocate for it, both in the workplace and in the community, is a force that we haven't had before." We've relied mostly on anecdotes to guide us on this, and that's the wrong way. We need to focus on the data." Women's participation rate in the Quebec labour force went from 74 to 87 per cent, says Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz. Credit: REUTERS/Chris Wattie

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