Abstract:

This BRIEFing NOTE provides an update of the current state of the national child care program in Canada. It features a short introduction to recent developments in ELCC, from the 2004 election campaign to March 2006. It includes a table summarizing selected features of provincial/territorial contexts, including:
- working force participation of mothers;
- percent of children for whom there is a regulated space;
- provincial/territorial child care budgets and allocation per space and per child;
- whether the province/ territory signed a bilateral agreement with the federal government and the amount of expected funding.

Finally, this BRIEFing NOTE features media quotes from provincial officials that provide a picture of where individual provincial governments stand on the current state of the national child care program.