Excerpts 

...

Trendiak is thankful he and his wife both own their businesses, giving them the wiggle room to rise to the daily challenges of child care.

But that flexibility is available only to a fraction of Canadians. In a recent report, researchers with the Vanier Institute of the Family found Canada lags behind similar countries in supporting working parents with flexible work arrangements and parental leave hours.

The researchers are calling for the federal government to implement policies that already exist in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, including a national sick leave policy and the right for all working parents to request flexible work arrangements.

Economist Jim Stanford says these policies would make a big difference for parents — but only if they also come with better access to affordable child care.

“Working parents face a constant juggling act to combine work and caring for their families, and those caring duties never follow a predictable or reliable schedule,” Stanford said. “Canada’s labour standards are too rigid regarding working hours and arrangements.”

In the report published last May, a team of three labour researchers set out to find the gaps in Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial policies for employed caregivers. Then, they compared Canadian labour laws with those of nearly 60 other wealthy countries.

While some countries give working parents the right to request flexible working arrangements, that support is available for only a fraction of Canadians, said lead author and University of British Columbia sociology PhD candidate Manlin Cai.

“We have all kinds of care demands as workers,” Cai said. “Often, parents don’t have a choice; they have to miss work, and if they miss work, there are also a bunch of other negative consequences.”

...

A lack of leave

Of the 57 wealthy countries the team studied, Canada joins the United States and Japan as the only countries with no federal sick leave policy.

Currently, employees in the federally regulated sector and all provinces are entitled to time off for family responsibilities.

For federally regulated workplaces and in five provinces, including Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, employees can use their sick leave to attend to family needs.

...

Child-care access critical

Back in Vancouver, Trendiak had some concerns. He said while the policies could help employees of major employers, it could be difficult on small businesses.

Trendiak said when the provincial government mandated five paid sick days for businesses in 2022, the policy upped his family business’s costs by $60,000 — ultimately forcing them to sell the business.

“That policy would murder small businesses,” Trendiak said. “I sympathize on the parents’ side now that I’m a parent of two toddlers trying to juggle it all, but small businesses — that would flatline them.”

Instead, he said, the Affordable Child Care Benefit — a monthly payment from the provincial government to address the costs of child care — has massively helped his family manage financial pressures.

He added expanding access to affordable child care would help his family manage care responsibilities. Advocates told The Tyee earlier this year British Columbia is years behind on providing universal $10-a-day child care.

“It took us three years to get into a solid, quality daycare,” Trendiak said. “I think that’s crazy.”