It was twenty years ago today...March 8, 1986

Abstract: International Women's Day 2006 is the twentieth anniversary of the Report of the federal government's first and only Task Force on Child Care. The key recommendation of the "Katie Cooke Task Force" was a universal system of child care &em; co-funded by federal and provincial governments. It would have affordable parent fees, would be designed and managed by the provinces under national standards and would be built through a gradual increase in the supply of regulated child care until the year 2001 when it would serve all children and families. The cost at that time, the Task Force calculated, would be $11.3 billion.