Abstract:
The vast majority of Canada's 170,000 family child care providers do not have access to the protection and benefits of labour and employment laws. In the regulated sector, the delivery model for family child care varies from one province to another. In several provinces that use the family child care agency model, child care services are structured to circumvent labour and employment laws by avoiding the establishment of an employment relationship between the agency and the family child care provider. Given, on the one hand, the precarious employment status of these providers and, on the other hand, the impact of this precariousness on the quality of child care services, this report provides recommendations for extending, to all regulated child care providers, the protection afforded by certain social security schemes.