Available for download in pdf format
ECEC in Canada 2019 full publication [revised 12-Feb-2021]. (Publication sections available for download below.)
Companion document
ECEC in Canada 2019: Summary and analysis of key findings
Services éducatifs et de garde à l’enfance au Canada 2019: Sommaire et analyse des principales conclusions
Early childhood education and care in Canada 2019 is the Childcare Resource and Research Unit’s 12th compilation of Canada-wide data on early learning and child care (ELCC) and related early childhood and family programs. The report integrates administrative data provided by provincial/territorial ELCC officials (its primary source of information), data from Statistics Canada and other relevant research. The ECEC in Canada reports have been published about every two years since 1992, allowing both cross-Canada and longitudinal tracking of ELCC programs and policy using a consistent approach to ensure comparable data over time and across Canada. See the ECEC in Canada backgrounder for details.
Consistently tracking data over time has always been a key goal for ECEC in Canada. However, this 12th version is especially important because the report will be able to provide benchmarks on key indicators of the state of Canadian early learning and child care before the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic has had a very substantial impact on ELCC provision, its workforce, policy and women’s labour force participation, this report’s focus on pre-pandemic data will provide an indispensable baseline to identify and analyze the pandemic’s effects.
The report provides detailed provincial/territorial descriptive information on child care and kindergarten programs including educator/teacher training, wages, ratios, group/class size, pedagogy, governance, affordability, and availability of spaces) as well as budget allocations and pertinent demographic data such as the number of children, mothers' employment rates and more. It also offers a Canada-wide overview of how ELCC services are organized, government roles, Indigenous ELCC and parental leave.
ECEC in Canada 2019 will play a key role in contributing insights valuable to new public policy development as Canada tackles the critical issue of early learning and child care in the period of economic recovery from COVID-19 in the months and years ahead.
