Excerpts from the CUPE article:
A new company called Edleun Group has set up shop in Canada with a goal to own ten per cent of the Canadian child care market.
Parents, child care providers and communities beware: this would be a major shift for Canada where child care is primarily operated on a non-profit basis that reflects the needs of children instead of shareholders.
Today in Canada there is a mix of for-profit, non-profit and public child care services providing a patchwork of services. Until now even the for-profit Canadian childcare businesses have remained relatively small, privately-owned operations.
Edleun is the first publicly traded child care corporation in Canada. The company's emergence in Canada establishes a much more corporate child care operation than Canadians have yet experienced.
Child care advocates have learned that a market approach to child care simply doesn't work. In the current global economic crisis Canadian governments need to develop public early learning and child care services that support children, their families and the country's economic recovery.
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