Description:

Good quality licensed child care is expensive for Canadian families and waiting lists can be long. This impedes the employment of (mainly) women, affecting economic output and social assistance rolls,  and leaving the early education of our children to ad hoc processes. Canada lags far behind other  industrialized nations in terms of spending on early childhood education and care (ECEC). This  problem is far from new, yet governments at all levels have not sufficiently addressed the issue, mainly due to the high cost.

This policy paper focuses on the Niagara Region to illustrate the ongoing problems and issues  surrounding early childhood education and care.