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Since Stephen Harper was elected prime minister, the issue of a national child-care program has virtually disappeared from public debate. In one of his first acts, Harper unilaterally killed a child-care deal signed by the previous Liberal government, which would have given the provinces $5 billion over five years to create 100,000 new regulated child-care spaces.
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And with that action, Harper effectively killed all debate on a national day-care program. Even the provincial premiers won't touch the issue, as evidenced by their failure to mention it in a nine-page, single-spaced communiqué detailing their annual conference held two weeks ago.
Fortunately, this silence may be about to change, following the recent release of a new report on daycare by the C.D. Howe Institute and a major essay by Roy Romanow, former premier of Saskatchewan and an Economic Justice Fellow at the Atkinson Charitable Foundation.
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The [C.D. Howe] report acknowledged that child-care programs reap huge benefits for children from low-income and single-parent families. The most important measurable benefit was improved school performance.
Other studies have shown that all children benefit from a good early start in life. Leading researchers have established strong empirical links between an emphasis on early childhood development and success in later life.
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In his essay, Child Care and the Future of Canada, Romanow argues convincingly that "to strengthen our common commitment to early learning and child care is to advance our individual and collective well-being and, in turn, the building of a better Canada." Good early learning is key to improving the determinants of well-being, he says, noting a healthy, educated population plays a critical role in bolstering a competitive economy.
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As Romanow says, Canadians are proud of their universal, high quality health-care system that is available to everyone, regardless of income or where they live. The same could be true of a high-quality early learning and child-care system. We must ensure that young families have the supports they need so the next generation grows up healthy, strong and well-educated. The future of Canada depends on it.
That's why we must reopen the debate on a national child-care program.
- reprinted from the Toronto Star