Canadian Social Research Links

Early Learning and Child Care in Canada
[Early Childhood Development]
- Non-Governmental Organizations -

Sites de recherche sociale au Canada

Apprentissage et garde des jeunes enfants au Canada
[Développement de la petite enfance]
- Organismes non-gouvernementaux -

Updated May 11, 2008
Page révisée le 11 mai 2008

[ Go to Canadian Social Research Links Home Page ]

Related Canadian Social Research Links pages:

- Early Learning and Child Care in Canada - Canadian Govt. Links
- Children, Families and Youth - Canadian Government Links
- Children, Families and Youth - Canadian NGO Links
- Children, Families and Youth - International Links
- Children's Rights Links page (Canadian/International)
- Unofficial Social Union Links Page (national)
- Unofficial Provincial/Territorial Social Union Links Page
See these related outside sites also...
- The (official) Social Union website
- The National Child Benefit website

National Child Care Conference:

Entre Deux Mers/Between Two Seas:
Bridging Children and Communities

Co-hosted by the Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia and the
Canadian Child Care Federation
Richmond, British Columbia
May 29-31, 2008

Event flyer (PDF file - 973K, 1 page)

Related links:

* Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia
- this is their 37th Annual Conference.

* Canadian Child Care Federation


NOTES:
1. For information about the Early Learning and Child Care Agreements signed by Social Development Canada (on behalf of the federal government) and the provinces in starting in April 2005, go to the Government Early Learning and Child Care Links page of this site: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/ecd.htm
2. For links to the reports of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, go to the First Nations Links page of this site: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/1stbkmrk.htm

NEW

What's new from the
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU):

May 9, 2008

Why aren’t the day care children playing outside? Flip flops, mulch and no coat
9 May 08
- Article from Science Daily presenting new research on barriers to outdoor physical activities at child care centers.

Child care choices: A plan to support our families
9 May 08
- Child care investment plan released by the Alberta Government.

Developing positive identities: Diversity and young children
9 May 08
- Publication from the Bernard van Leer Foundation focusing on the formation of children’s identities in early childhood.

Consequences of corporatization and marketization of child care
9 May 08
- Webcast of Deborah Brennan’s presentation on Australia, policy, and the corporatization of child care during her two-week tour across Canada in April.

LHMU: Long day care parent survey
9 May 08
- Report from the Australian LHMU presenting the findings from a national survey on what parents want from long day care.

more WHAT'S NEW ONLINE »

child care in the news


· Empowered mothers change the world [CA-NB]
8 May 08

· Report slams child care [CA-BC] 7
May 08

· Conservative to head review of kindergarten [CA-PE]
7 May 08

· Provincial government increases day-care funding [CA-SK]
6 May 08

· Construction sites now have childcare centres [IN] 5 May 08

more CC IN THE NEWS »

Related Links:

Links to child care sites in Canada and elsewhere
CRRU Publications
- briefing notes, factsheets, occasional papers and other publications
ISSUE files - theme pages, each filled with contextual information and links to further info

More CRRU content (this link takes you further down the page you're now reading)

NEW

Related Web/News/Blog links:

Google Search Results Links - always current results!
Using the following search terms (without the quote marks):
"child care, Canada"
- Web search results page
- News search results page
- Blog Search Results page
Source:
Google.ca


Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada, 2006
The Childcare Resource and Research Unit has periodically assembled Canadian data to produce a national snapshot of early childhood care and education. The seventh edition of Early childhood education and care in Canada and the second edition of Trends and analysis present 2005 and 2006 data. These data – together with data compiled for earlier editions – 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2004 reveal trends in ECEC over a decade and a half.

Early childhood education and care in Canada, 2006
(Table of contents + links to provincial/territorial reports, tables, Federal ECEC programs and funds, Aboriginal ECEC, and more...)
June 2007
by Martha Friendly, Jane Beach, Carolyn Ferns, and Michelle Turiano
This publication provides cross-Canada data and information on regulated child care and kindergarten by province/ territory, maternity and parental leave together with relevant demographic information.

Trends & Analysis 2007:
Early childhood education and care in Canada 2006
(PDF file - 338K, 12 pages)
December 2007
This document presents a summary and analysis of the data and identifies key issues. Includes illustrative charts and graphs.

Earlier Editions:

Early childhood education and care in Canada 2004
Early childhood education and care in Canada 2001
Early childhood education and care in Canada 1998

Source:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)


What's new from Human Resources and Social Development Canada:

Canada's New Government Celebrates Giving Parents Greater Choice in Child Care
July 10, 2007
Canada's New Government made a commitment to support Canadian families and give them real choice in child care, and it is delivering on that promise. Since launching the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) in July 2006, the Government has provided 1.5 million Canadian families with monthly UCCB cheques of $100 for every child under six years old.

Related links:

Canada's Universal Child Care Plan - "Provides Choice, Support and Spaces."

A new $1,200 Choice in Child Care Allowance for pre-school kids
And capital assistance for building new childcare spaces
December 05, 2005
- from the website of the Conservative Party of Canada

-------------------------------------------------------------
Happy Anniversary from the Party Poopers!
-------------------------------------------------------------

One year later, Canadian families still have no child care solution
Harper Conservatives celebrate first anniversary of failed plan
July 10, 2007
Monte Solberg, minister of Human Resources and Social Development, is in Winnipeg today, holding a celebration of the so-called “Universal Child Care Benefit”.“I’m not sure what there is to celebrate,” said CUPE National President Paul Moist. “This plan hasn’t delivered a single child care space.”
NOTE: check the right-hand margin for 14 links to related websites and articles
Source:
Canadian Union of Public Employees

Also from CUPE:

Early learning and child care - It's time
July 13, 2007
The Canadian Union of public Employees (CUPE) has published a new booklet that makes the case for a universal, high quality, not-for-profit child care system. The booklet outlines the major issues facing child care workers, and promotes CUPE's plan to help build a stronger system through organizing, advocacy and collective bargaining.

Complete report:

Early learning and child care - It's time (PDF file - 2.5MB, 24 pages)
"(...) The Canadian Union of Public Employees believes Canada urgently needs a high-quality early learning and child care (ELCC) system. Many CUPE members are parents with young children. They need quality child care so they can work with peace of mind. More than half of CUPE members are women, and women still bear the major responsibility for child-rearing."



Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Agreements - 2005

I'm leaving this box as is for historical purposes...

From the spring to the fall of 2005, the governments of Canada and the provinces negotiated and signed agreements-in-principle and individual bilateral agreements on early learning and child care. As soon as the new Conservative government took office early in 2006, it revoked all early learning and child care agreements. I haven't changed the content in this box to reflect the new government's Child Care Allowance starting in the summer of 2006.

Dryden achieves 10 child care agreements
25 Nov 05
Globe and Mail
"Social Development Minister Ken Dryden achieved his goal of obtaining early-learning and child care deals with all 10 provinces as his Liberal government counts down its final days in office. Agreements yesterday with New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island leaves just the three territories to sign on to Mr. Dryden's plan to create a national system of child care for Canada -- a promise the Liberals have been making for more than a decade."

The most current and comprehensive ELCC website:

Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Agreements:
Towards a national system of early learning and child care

The link above is from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU). It's where you'll find the largest and most timely collection of reports, press releases, news articles and other pertinent documents related to the Canadian ELCC policy developments. The file is categorized into government documents, responses, and news articles.

Quality by Design Project - Early Learning and Child Care
"The Quality by Design project is intended to facilitate dialogue, debate and knowledge development regarding conceptions of and approaches to high quality early learning and child care (ELCC) programs that both enhance children’s development and support families. Quality by Design is a project of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, and it is funded by Social Development Canada. It has a duration of three years (2004-2007). The project leaders are Martha Friendly and Jane Beach.(...) The Quality by Design Project is intended to contribute to quality as Canada's new national ELCC program - framed by the "QUAD" principles of Quality, Universality, Accessibility and Developmental [ness] - develops."
- incl. * An ELCC system * Ideas * Governance * Infrastructure * Planning and policy development * Financing * Human resources * Physical environment * Data, research and evaluation



Symposium on Early Child Development - A Priority For Sustained Economic Growth & Equity

September 27-30, 2005
World Bank – Washington, DC
"The Symposium brought together 150 participants from about 30 countries from the Latin and Central America and the Caribbean, East Asia Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern and Central Asia, and Sub Saharan Africa, with the largest representation coming from LAC. (...) The symposium objectives were to: (i) Continue to build awareness of ECD as an important investment that nations can make to inform policymakers about the returns on ECD; (2) Highlight progress in the implementation of policy and program responses; (3) Identify and explore alternative mechanisms to finance effective early child development interventions that reach the beneficiaries, and (4) Learn from existing evaluations so that in the future, better-designed evaluations will respond to questions posed by policy makers and project managers to continue funding ECD."
- includes a detailed agenda and links to other symposium materials (audio/video presentations, speeches, etc.)

The three links below are to Canadian presentations made at the symposium.
Clicking a link downloads a video file and a Powerpoint presentation in each case.
If the video doesn't work, it's likely because you're trying to access the file from an office or university network that has a high level of security, or else the network admin just doesn't like people watching videos on company time. Try watching the video from home if that's the case...

Science of ECD: Biological Embeddings of ECD
Video and Powerpoint presentation, approx. 46 min.
by Fraser Mustard (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research)

Measuring ECD Longitudinal Research in Canada
Video and Powerpoint presentation, approx. 19 min
by Jane Bertrand (Council for Early Child Development and Parenting, Canada)
- incl. info about the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth

Investment in Early Childhood Development : The Economic Argument
Video and Powerpoint presentation, approx. 19 min
by Charles Coffey (Executive VP, Royal Bank of Canada)
[ Text version of this presentation - from the RBC Financial Group website]

Source:
Early Child Development (ECD)
"This site is a knowledge source designed to assist policy makers, program managers, and practitioners in their efforts to promote the healthy growth and integral development of young children."
[ The World Bank ]


Early Childhood Development and Child Care: What Do We Know?
Conference
March 27, 2006 (Vancouver)
- co-organized by the Human Early Learning Partnership of the University of British Columbia
Conference program (PDF file - 55K, 1 page)
Presentations:
NOTE: "The presentations below are the original versions as presented by the authors at the conference, and are not to be cited or quoted without the author's permission."

* Understanding Recent Research on Quebec’s Childcare Programme (PDF file - 124K, 24 pages)
by Kevin Milligan
* Child Care Services: A Major Missing Piece of the Family Benefit Package (PDF file - 992K, 23 pages)
by Paul Kershaw
* How can the latest research contribute to early learning and child care policy? What do we know – and what do we think? (PDF file - 163K, 31 pages)
by Martha Friendly
* At the Crossroads:Child Care Policy and Funding in BC and Canada (PDF file - 188K, 12 pages)
by Lynell Anderson


 


Early Learning and Child Care in Canada
Non-Governmental Organizations

 

Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development

June 8, 2005
Study urges caution on Best Start strategy (Word file - 30K, 2 pages)
"TORONTO - Three education leaders who released a study last year advising the province to rethink its strategy for preschoolers are urging caution as Ontario finalizes it child care plans with the federal government. Early Learning and Care in the City: Update 2005 warns that new federal funding for Ontario must be accompanied by a stronger policy framework than is now outlined in the province's Best Start Plan."
Study update:
Early Learning and Care in the City Update - June 2005

Original study:
Early Learning and Care in the City:
A New Blueprint for Ontario
(PDF file - 326K, 30 pages)
September 2004
Michael Cooke, Daniel Keating & Marjorie McColm
The Centre of Early Childhood Development, George Brown College and
Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education/ University of Toronto

Highlights of the original study (PDF file - 147K, 4 pages)

Related Links from the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services:

May 6, 2005
Moving Forward: Governments of Canada and Ontario
sign an agreement on Early Learning and Child Care

"HAMILTON — Prime Minister Paul Martin, along with Social Development Minister Ken Dryden and Dr. Marie Bountrogianni, Ontario's Minister of Children and Youth Services, announced today an historic Agreement in Principle that further supports the development of quality early learning and child care (ELCC) for young children and their families in Ontario."

May 6, 2005
Backgrounder- The McGuinty Government's Best Start Plan

November 25, 2004
Results For Ontario Families

November 25, 2004
Helping Young Children Get The Best Start In Life

-----------------------------------------

New study urges Ontario to act quickly on preschool strategy
September 2, 2004
"TORONTO, ON – A new study urges the Ontario government to revamp its policies for children 0-5 years and their families as the federal government boosts its early years funding to Ontario by up to $1 billion in the next five years. Education leaders at George Brown College and OISE/UT authored the study, Early Learning and Care in the City, which recommends ways to achieve a more effective, accountable system. Its goal is to better respond to the needs of today’s families and provide early learning and care to every child in the province."
Source:
Media Release (PDF file - 21K, 2 pages)

Complete report:
Early Learning and Care in the City : A New Blueprint for Ontario (PDF file - 326K, 30 pages)
September 2004
by Michael Cooke, Daniel Keating & Marjorie McColm
Questions and Answers about the study (PDF file - 147K, 4 pages)

Source:
Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development
"The Atkinson Centre for Society & Child Development supports Dr. Daniel Keating, the Atkinson Charitable Foundation Chair for Early Child Development and Education. ACSCD and the Chair want to build a network for research activities, scientific understanding, practical knowledge and societal and community support
[ Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) ]
Centre for Early Childhood Development at George Brown College

Beverley Smith's Page
In May 1997 a Canadian homemaker, Beverley Smith, laid an official complaint at the United Nations that Canada discriminates against homemakers in its tax, divorce and childcare laws and in Statistics Canada studies.
"Beverley Smith is a long-time researcher and activist promoting equality for all roles for men and women, paid and unpaid, and for the state to value the family side of the career family balance. (...) working to get a fairer tax climate to all kids, and all ways to raise them, addressing child poverty in a way that shows no favoritism for lifestyle or career choice"

Kids First Parent Association of Canada
"We are a communications network of people working to better the lives of children. Through our efforts we endeavour to raise the social status of time devoted to caregiving and the anchor it provides, though unpaid, to a healthy society."
- incl. links to : About Us | History/Background | Caregiving Research | Health of Children and Parents | Finances of Families and Nations | Career Trends and Feminism | Unpaid but Meaningful Labor | Contact Us | Laws and Politics

Recent Developments in Caregiving
- free weekly newsletter by Beverley Smith of Calgary, available via e-mail by subscription [ bevgsmith@hotmail.com ]
Each issue includes recent news and information on a wide range of topics, such as the positive effects of good care, the negative effects of bad care, caregiving research, the characteristics of caregivers, child and parent health, career trends, family finances, legal and political, and much more...

Related Links:
(these links appear in each issue of the newsletter)

http://members.tripod.com/beverley_smith__1

http://unitednatcomplaint.tripod.com

http://dataforuse.tripod.com

http://kidsfirst1.tripod.com

http://vuthruotherseyes.tripod.com

http://worldkidquilt.tripod.com

NOTE:
Ms Smith's view is that parents who stay at home to provide care for their children should receive better support from government, like enhanced tax breaks, instead of money going only to public day care. However, many organizations supporting a national universal public day care system disagree. See Fact and fantasy: Eight myths about early childhood education and care (July 2003) by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)

Caledon Institute of Social Policy

More Than a Name Change: The Universal Child Care Benefit (PDF file - 69K, 10 pages)
Ken Battle, Sherri Torjman and Michael Mendelson
May 2006
The federal government’s new Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) - formerly known as the Choice in Child Care Allowance - contains two serious flaws. First, the UCCB will be taxable in the hands of the lower-earner parent in the case of couples or the parent in one-parent families. As a result, different types of family with the same income will pay different amounts of federal and provincial/territorial income taxes on their $1,200 annual payment and so will receive different after-tax benefits. Single-parent families typically will end up with the smallest after-tax benefits from the new program. Second, to help pay for the new scheme, the Canada Child Tax Benefit’s $249 annual young child care supplement - used mainly by low- and modest-income families - will be axed. The resulting distribution of net benefits (i.e., after the loss of the young child supplement and income tax increases) will be irrational, confusing and unfair. No family will end up with $1,200. The largest net benefit - $971 - will go to upper-income one-earner couples, while those on welfare will get $20 less. Working poor families will get less than those on welfare, so the Universal Child Care Benefit will raise the welfare wall. The paper compares the UCCB with Caledon’s proposal to deliver the $1,200 through the Canada Child Tax Benefit, and finds the latter option superior on a range of criteria.

Related Links:

The Incredible Shrinking $1,200 Child Care Allowance: How to Fix It (PDF file - 121K, 26 pages)
Ken Battle, April 2006
As proposed to date, the new $1,200 Child Care Allowance will be a flawed scheme creating deep inequities. Working poor and modest-income families will end up with low net benefits, and one-earner couples will get more than single parents and two-earner couples. For example, an Ontario two-earner couple with net family income of $30,000 would end up with just $199, while a $200,000 one-earner couple would get a net benefit of $1,076. The paper explores several options to fix the flaws in the Child Care Allowance. First, Ottawa should not go ahead with its plan to eliminate the $249 young child supplement, which is part of the Canada Child Tax Benefit. Second, the Allowance could be exempt from the calculation of net family income. Third, it could be designed as a universal non-taxable benefit. Fourth, it could be delivered through the existing Canada Child Tax Benefit. Caledon favours the first and fourth of these options.

Finding Common Ground on Child Care (PDF file - 15K, 3 pages)
Ken Battle, Sherri Torjman and Michael Mendelson
February 2006
The proposed $1,200 Choice in Child Care Allowance is a stealth program that will in fact deliver smaller benefits than advertised. Caledon proposes that the federal government instead deliver the $1,200 through the tried and true Canada Child Tax Benefit.

The Choice in Child Care Allowance:
What you See Is Not What You Get
(PDF file - 63K, 7 pages)
Ken Battle
January 2006

Architecture for National Child Care
Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman
November 2002
The case for investing in high quality child care is compelling and unequivocal. The current challenge is to develop an architecture that will help guide the construction of a Canadian child care system open to all families that want to use it. This paper discusses four possible implementation mechanisms: a codicil to the Early Childhood Development Agreement, a new national child care strategy, bilateral agreements on child care and federal-municipal agreements on child care. These implementation mechanisms were developed in collaboration with the National Liberal Caucus Social Policy Committee, Chair, John Godfrey, MP.

A Proposed Model Framework for Early Childhood Development Services Within the National Children's Agenda (Abstract)
Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman

September 2000

Complete report (PDF file, 7 pages, 31K)

 

Campaign 2000

Issue Papers on Child Care Policy and Programs in Canada

Diversity or Disparity?
Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada (ECEC)

Second Report, Community Indicators Project
October 2003

For the first time, the number of child care spaces declines in Canada
News Alert
October 28, 2003
Release of Diversity or Disparity? Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada (ECEC), Second Report, Community Indicators Project
"...cuts to child care budgets in the three richest provinces - British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario - resulted in an overall loss of spaces"

Media Kit: contains media release, Q&A. (PDF file - 178K, 3 pages)
Full Report - HTML (NOTE: the table of contents is in the left-hand margin of the report page)
Full Report - PDF - 288K, 16 pages

About the Community Indicators project
Project reports
- links to HTML and PDF versions of this year's report and last year's (released in October 2002), as well as French versions of reports for both years

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Multilateral Agreement of Early Learning and Care :
An Open Letter to John Manley, Finance Minister of Canada
cc. • The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada
cc. • The Honourable Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada
May 22, 2003
- endorsed by over 50 local, provincial/territorial and national family and children's groups, from the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Newfoundland and Labrador to YWCA Vancouver
- supportive of the new prominence of child care in the federal budget and of the Multilateral Agreement of Early Learning and Care, but critical of the lack of financial commitment of the federal government over the next five years.
"... it is useful to reflect on the fact that the anticipated fifth year transfer to provinces/ territories of $350 million is approximately what your government was spending for child care through the Canada Assistance Plan when it was abolished in 1996 ($320 million in 1996 dollars) (...) The $25 million in the first year and $75 million in the second year scarcely reflect the importance of child care both for early learning and support for parents as highlighted in the Throne Speech and budget."
Source : Campaign 2000

Campaign 2000 Critique of the 2003 federal budget:
Deferred Investments Leave Children Behind (Feb. 19/03)
Budget 2003 - Child Poverty Backgrounder (Feb. 12/03)

Diversity or Disparity? Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada (ECEC)
ECEC Community Indicators Project Report

October 2002
Complete report (HTML)
Complete report (PDF file - 145K, 8 pages)
Additional references (PDF file - 33K, 1 page)

The Early Childhood Development Initiative: A Vision for Early Childhood Development Services in Ontario
April 9, 2001

PDF file - 10 pages, 229KB

This Ontario Campaign 2000 paper developed in consultation with representatives from: Campaign 2000, Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, Ontario Association of Family Resource Programs, Toronto Public Health, Metro Association of Family Resource Programs and Toronto Coalition for Better Child Care.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - CBC

Day Care in Canada - CBC News Indepth
February 24, 2006
It was first proposed in 1970 – a program that would provide affordable day care across the country. It was promised when Brian Mulroney and the Conservatives swept to power in 1984. And again four years later. By the time Jean Chrétien's Liberals did some political sweeping of their own in 1993, promises of a national day-care strategy had fallen victim to the realities of a government wallowing in debt. With budgetary knives sharpened and drawn, day care would have to wait..."
- be sure to check out the links down the right side of the page for interesting info* on day care and for links to five reports (under "External Links").
*for example:
Day care: cost to parents (Feb/05) - median cost per month to parents for full-time centre-based child care (and these have gone up since Feb/05 when the analysis was done.)
- according to the table, the median paid for full-time day care of a preschooler 3-5 yrs of age in Ontario is $541 - almost five-and-a-half times the amount of the Conservative Child Care Allowance.
Source:
CBC News Indepth
[ CBC.CA ]

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-BC

Making Early Childhood Development a Priority: Lessons from Vancouver
May 2004
By Clyde Hertzman
"Canadians have become increasingly aware of the benefits of early childhood development. Traditional voices demanding increased access to child care and the prevention of childhood poverty were joined by those who, from a scientific perspective, recognized that the experiences of early childhood can have a profound impact on health, well-being, and coping skills across the entire life course. Governments too have recognized the value of funding these programs, and have implemented agreements that have brought modest levels of federal-provincial transfer payments. While this is a good start, it is only a start. Funding for children from birth to age 5 remains only a fraction of that spent on children in the K-12 system, despite mounting evidence that programs and services are needed earlier. This paper draws on findings from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, which suggests that as many as one-quarter of Canada's young children may be developmentally vulnerable at school entry. It also summarizes findings of a Vancouver initiative, the Early Development Instrument, which measured readiness for school across Vancouver's 23 neighbourhoods."
(Excerpt from the summary)

Complete report (PDF file - 564K, 13 pages)

Canadian Child Care Federation
Our mission is to improve the quality of child care services for all Canadians

"Founded in 1987, the Canadian Child Care Federation (CCCF) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of child care services for Canadian children and families. CCCF includes 16 regional affiliate organizations, independent members and other partner national organizations. The CCCF uses a variety of techniques to communicate amongst its members and to the larger child care community. "
- incl. links to : Affiliates - About Us - Membership - Practice - Press Room - Projects - Publications - Search

Canadian Council on Social Development

Child Care for a Change!Shaping the 21st Century
Childcare & Early Learning Conference

November 12-14, 2004
Winnipeg Convention Centre
"The Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) is the host of the conference “Child Care For A Change! Shaping the 21st Century." The conference will take place at the Winnipeg Convention Centre, in Winnipeg, from November 12th to 14th, 2004. This exciting pan-Canadian conference will feature inspiring speakers such as UN Special Envoy Stephen Lewis and Quebec Education Critic Pauline Marois. It will provide ample time for a rich dialogue and debate during sessions like the special Town Hall Meeting on Child Care. It is expected that the ideas generated from the conference will influence public policy and public perception about early learning and child care and help set the agenda for the next decade."
General Info - Program (incl. list of 15 workshops)- Speakers - Papers - Registration - Accommodation

----------------------------------------------------------------

Perception Magazine (November 4, 2004)
"A double issue of CCSD's magazine, Perception, was just published. This is a special theme edition, focusing on child care and early learning.
Four articles are available online to the general public.

Child Care for a Change (by Marcel Lauzière)
Fast Facts on Child Care in Canada
Count business in... (by Charley Coffey)
Saying Yes to Inclusion

CCSD commissioned three papers to enhance and promote discussion at the Child Care For A Change conference (Nov. 12/04, Winnipeg).

Financing Early Learning and Child Care in Canada (PDF file - 121K, 10 pages)
by Gordon Cleveland and Michael Krashinsky

Early Child Learning and Care in Canada: Who Rules? Who Should Rule? (PDF file - 137K, 17 pages)
by Rianne Mahon

Who Benefits from Educational and Child Care Services and What Purpose do they Serve? (PDF file - 124K, 14 pages)
by Jocelyne Tougas

Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)

Child care


Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)

Child Care Act passes second vote
November 23, 2007
Opposition parties united Nov. 21 to adopt Bill C-303, an NDP-sponsored bill that would create a national child care system. The second reading vote is an important step on the way to become law. The bill need to pass a third vote, be approved by the Senate and then be proclaimed into law. C-303, the Early Learning and Child Care Act, would ensure that federal investments in child care would be made only in high quality, affordable, accessible, and non-profit early learning and child care services. The Bill would also require accountability from provinces on how the money is spent. C-303 will return to Parliament for a third reading vote in February 2008.

Big box buying spree adds urgency to national child care debate
November 15, 2007
VANCOUVER – With the Campbell Liberals refusing to stop the spread of big box child care across British Columbia, parents and child care activists are looking for action. Australian multinational child care corporation ABC Learning is seeking to expand into Canada by purchasing child care centres, starting in British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta.
[TIP: there are 13 links to related resources and websites in the right-hand margin of the page.]

The $1 billion child care cut: province-by-province
April 2, 2007
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has cancelled the federal-provincial agreements that laid the foundation for a system of high-quality, regulated, non-profit early learning and care. As of April 1st 2007, the funding has ended. We are losing $1 billion to establish quality early learning and child care services. Here's how Harper’s $1 billion cut to child care breaks down by province.

Comparison_of_Federal_Transfers_Child_Care_Spaces.pdf
(PDF file - 69K, 1 page)

Also from CUPE:

BuildChildCare.ca
"Public Child Care --- Build it Right, From the Start"
- incl. links to : Action centre * Spread the word * Join the network * Background * Downloads * Links * Contacts

www.buildchildcare.ca pushes ministers to get the new system right
News Release
December 21, 2004
"OTTAWA – A new online action centre is upping the pressure on Social Development Minister Ken Dryden to lay the best groundwork for a new child care system. Visitors to www.buildchildcare.ca will be able to send a message to Dryden, their provincial minister responsible for child care and other decision-makers. The site, run by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, joins other advocacy campaigns promoting the four building blocks of quality child care. 'This online campaign will add new voices to the call for Minister Dryden to make sure that Canada’s new child care system is publicly funded and publicly delivered,' said CUPE National President Paul Moist."

BuildChildCare.ca Links:

Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
Childcare Resource and Research Unit
Child Care Human Resources Sector Council
Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare
Coalition of Child Care Advocates of British Columbia

Child care: public program or big box boondoggle?
November 12, 2004
"OTTAWA – Social Development Minister Ken Dryden must make Canada’s new child care system public and not-for-profit or he will run the eventual risk of trade challenges, warns a legal opinion commissioned by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). 'The trade implications make it imperative that our long-awaited child care program be public from the beginning,'said CUPE National President Paul Moist. 'The faster we make child care a public program, the better protected we will be from trade challenges by massive US big box chains like Kindercare.'"

From patchwork to excellence in child care
November 2, 2004
"OTTAWA – Canada will go from patchwork to excellence if all levels of government work together to create the public, not-for-profit child care system that Canadians deserve and need, said Paul Moist, CUPE national president. Moist made the remarks as he joined with child care workers, parents and children to greet Minister Dryden Tuesday morning as Dryden began his day-long meeting with provincial social development ministers to discuss the child care program."
- incl. links to the following related articles:
* Wages for child care workers: the link with quality
* URGENT: Tell Ken Dryden to make child care history
* CUPE’s analysis of the federal speech from the throne
* CUPE blasts throne speech as blueprint for weak federalism
* Rapid response wins reprieve for BC college child care centre

Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
"The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) arose from the second Canadian conference on Child Care held in Winnipeg in 1982. Over 700 delegates from all Provinces and Territories called for an effective voice to pursue child care issues at the federal level and to promote a broad consensus of support within all regions of Canada. We are an incorporated, non-profit, bilingual Association."

What's New at the CCACC - links to a large collection of recent reports, alerts, and articles on child care in Canada

Sample content:

Making the Connections: Using Public Reporting
to Track the Progress on Child Care Services in Canada
November 16, 2007
* Full Report (PDF file - 559K, 67 pages)
* Executive Summary (PDF file - 49K, 3 pages)
"(...) Our project findings show that few governments have clear public reporting that allows the public to easily track progress throughout the required reporting period (2000/01 through 2005/06). None meet all of the performance and reporting requirements outlined in the FPT Agreements. (...) [Therefore] in order to promote clear public reporting that supports the public in tracking the ongoing progress in child care services, we have one overarching recommendation: FPT governments should expedite the implementation of key public performance reporting guidelines"

NOTE Clicking on the title of the report opens a page that includes links to the complete study and executive summary, to the individual sections of the report and its two appendices, and to information about child care expenditures in each province and territory and by the Government of Canada.

A guide to the Conservative government’s child care doublespeak (PDF file - 58K, 4 pages)
June 15, 2006
The Conservatives claim child care is one of their priorities, but everything they’ve said and done indicates they don’t believe in quality early learning and child care. Words such as 'choice', 'universal' and 'institutional' take on peculiar meanings when Stephen Harper and his ministers use them. It’s time to deconstruct the Conservative spin on child care..."
Source:
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
Found on the website of the
Canadian Union of Public Employees

Open Letter to Honourable Ken Dryden and the Provincial and Territorial Ministers Responsible for Child Care /
Lettre ouverte à l’honorable Ken Dryden et aux ministres provinciaux et territoriaux responsables des services de garde à l’enfance

October 27, 2004

Provincial budgets 2004-2005 and Child Care
April 2, 2004
- brief analysis of child care components of each provincial-territorial budget for 2004-2005

Early Learning and Child Care - Federal Funding in accordance with the Multilateral Framework (Budget 2003/04)
- $ allocations by province/territory for each of the five years of funding starting in 2003-2004


Child Care Coalition of Manitoba
"The Child Care Coalition of Manitoba (est. 1993) is a broadly-based and unincorporated coalition of groups and individuals. The Coalition currently has nearly 50 group memberships. Our members include parents, the labour movement, women's groups, the childcare community, educators and researchers and organizations committed to social justice, among others."

Child Care Human Resources Sector Council

Working conditions key to success of Ottawa’s child care plan
Media Release
November 9, 2004
"Wages and working conditions are so poor in many licensed child care settings that staff are taking their child development expertise elsewhere. Staff turnover has long plagued the child care sector but a new study released today by the Child Care Human Resources Sector Council, says the situation has never been worse."

Working for Change:
Canada’s Child Care Workforce
By Jane Beach, Jane Bertrand, Barry Forer,
Donna Michal and Jocelyne Tougas
Complete report (PDF file - 3MB, 185 pages)
"provides an in-depth profile of the workforce, the environment and context in which they work, and the challenges they face."

Executive Summary (PDF file - 704K, 20 pages)

Profiles and Case Studies (PDF file - 1MB, 77 pages)
"tells the story of 20 individuals working in various sectors and capacities in early childhood education, and examines the roles played by Toronto and Vancouver in supporting regulated child care."

Literature Review (PDf file - 794K, 89 pages)
"identifies the key themes and issues relevant to the child care labour market contained in research and reports produced since 1998."

["The Child Care Human Resources Sector Council is a pan-Canadian, non-profit organization dedicated to moving forward on the human resource issues in child care. We bring together national partners and other sector representatives develop a confident, skilled and respected workforce valued for its contribution to early childhood care and education."]

Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)
"The Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) focuses on research and policy resources in the context of a high quality system of early childhood education and child care in Canada.."

Child Care in the News - hundreds of media articles from January 2000 to the present

Links to child care sites in Canada and elsewhere- links (provincial/territorial, federal/national, and international) organized under the following headings: - Government - Child care organizations - Social policy/child organizations - Research centres - Clearinghouses - Periodicals

CRRU Publications - links to ~60 briefing notes, factsheets, occasional papers and other publications

---------------------------------------

What's New from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit:
Each week, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit disseminates its "e-mail news notifier", an e-mail message with a dozen or so links to new reports, studies and child care in the news (media articles) by the CRRU or another organization in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). What you see below is content from recent issues of the notifier.

May 2, 2008

Family choices: Manitoba’s five-year agenda for early learning and child care
2 May 08
- Agenda from the province of Manitoba outlining their plan of action for the maintenance and improvement of early learning and child care in the province.

Vulnerable children in Canada: Research insights and policy options
2 May 08
- Presentations from the IRPP symposium on April 11, 2008 that focused on child vulnerability in the Canadian context.

Lessons from Sweden
2 May 08
- Document from CCPA describing the social programs in Sweden that provide the foundation for their superior economic indicators.

Improving quality, enhancing inclusion
2 May 08
- Evaluation report from Special Link describing the first four years of an innovative approach targeted at enhancing child care centres' inclusion capacity and quality.

Preschool programs: Effective curricula
2 May 08
- Document from Columbia University identifying components of effective preschool curricula.

more WHAT'S NEW ONLINE »

child care in the news

· Childcare design guidelines dropped [CA-BC]
2 May 08

· The benefits of early learning [CA-ON]
2 May 08

· Almost 900,000 Canadian children living in poverty, StatsCan finds [CA-ON]
1 May 08

· Daycare attendance early in life cuts childhood leukemia risk by 30 percent, analysis finds [US]
28 Apr 08

· Child-care crunch puts parents in bind [CA-AB]
26 Apr 08

more CC IN THE NEWS

April 25, 2008

A global history of early childhood education and care
25 Apr 08
- Background paper prepared for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007 examining the history of developments in ECEC around the world.

Stats and Facts: A profile of the labour market in Canada
25 Apr 08
- Stats and Facts from the Canadian Council on Social Development presenting national data on family demographics, child care, and labour force participation.

Blueprint for early childhood development and school reform
25 Apr 08
- Discussion paper from the Victorian Government (AU), outlining the proposed priorities and actions for the integration of early childhood services and schools.

Implementing policies to reduce the likelihood of preschool expulsion
25 Apr 08
- Policy brief from the Yale Child Study Center examining factors associated with prekindergarten expulsions in the United States.

Little Britons: Financing childcare choice
25 Apr 08
- Report from Policy Exchange UK recommending a demand rather than supply side method of financial assistance to increase parental preferences for child care.

child care in the news

· Childcare windfall for dual-income families [AU]
26 Apr 08

· Kiddie credits [CA-ON]
24 Apr 08

· Childcare subsidies face shake-up [NL]
23 Apr 08

· Options studied for kindergarten [CA-ON]
23 Apr 08

· ABC sells US centres, expects loss [AU]
22 Apr 08

April 18, 2008

Foreign investment in child care sector: Canada’s international trade obligations
18 Apr 08
- Legal opinion prepared for CUPE assessing the potential impact of Canada’s international trade obligations on provincial policy and law related to child care services.

Disparities in California’s child care subsidy system: A look at teacher education, stability and diversity
18 Apr 08
- Report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment comparing staff characteristics of voucher vs subsidy systems in California.

Next steps for federal child care policy (U.S.)
18 Apr 08
- Report from The Future of Children discussing current federal policies and reformations to increase the accessibility of quality child care for low-income families in the US.

Ladders of learning: Fighting fade-out by advancing PK-3 alignment
18 Apr 08
- Report from the New America Foundation discussing the importance of having strong well aligned programs beginning in pre-k extending through grade 3.

Child care statistics 2007
18 Apr 08
- Revised version of report, as of April 18, 2008, is now available online.

child care in the news

· Plant the seeds: Education youngsters could become literate, learn second language at junior kindergarten [CA-NB]
18 Apr 08

· PM’s 2020 pledge for every child [AU]
16 Apr 08

· One of these states is not like the others… [US]
15 Apr 08

· Luring immigrants not enough [CA-NB]
14 Apr 08

· Women paying to go to work [AU] 13 Apr 08

---------------------------------------

April 11, 2008

Child care space statistics 2007
11 Apr 08
This report presents provincial/territorial data on the number and breakdown of spaces in regulated child care as of March 31, 2007. It updates the Childcare Resource and Research Unit's most recent edition of Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada (2006) which presented Canadian child care data as of March 31, 2006.

Hand in hand: Improving the links between ECEC and schools in OECD countries
11 Apr 08
- Paper prepared for The Institute for Child and Family Policy at Columbia University exploring the efforts in OECD countries to link ECEC and schools.

Full-day kindergarten and student literacy growth: Does a lengthened school day make a difference?
11 Apr 08
- Report from Early Childhood Research Quarterly examining literacy outcomes for economically disadvantaged students in full-day versus half-day programs.

Who is ahead and who is behind? Gaps in school readiness and student achievement in the early grades for California’s children
11 Apr 08
- Report from RAND examining achievement gaps for children in California and the potential of high-quality preschool programs to reduce the differences.

Exploring recruitment and retention issues for BC’s community social sector employees
11 Apr 08
- Report from SPARC BC examining the evidence, impacts, and ways of improving recruitment and retention in the community social service sector in BC.

child care in the news

· Growth of new child-care spaces stunted after Tories took power: report [CA-ON]
10 Apr 08

· More money for early education [CA-SK]
10 Apr 08

· Primary watch: Ignoring early education [US]
8 Apr 08

· Bringing in baby [UK]
8 Apr 08

· Canadian early childhood educators get life-changing experience in Jamaica [JM]
6 Apr 08

· Protestors rally against uncontrolled nurseries in Spain [ES]
4 Apr 08

--------------------------------------------

April 4, 2008

New CRRU Issue File:
What do mealtimes and food mean in early childhood programs?

4 Apr 08
- Issue File from CRRU that focuses on food polices and the significance of mealtime practices in child care programs.

Diversity and equality guidelines for childcare providers
4 Apr 08
- Document from the Department of Health and Children, Ireland, that seeks to raise awareness of all diversity in the early childhood and education sector.

For love or money: Pay, progression and professionalisation in the ‘early years’ workforce
4 Apr 08
- Report from the Institute for Public Policy Research highlights the perpetuation of low pay and poorly qualified practitioners in the UK early years workforce.

The need to improve: Canadian child care
4 Apr 08
- Article in Canadian Family magazine discussing Canada’s ‘patchwork’ child care system and the need for a universal plan.

Government departments change to reflect island priorities
4 Apr 08
- Press release from the Premier’s office in PEI announcing government department shifts including the blending of education and early childhood development.

child care in the news

· Union report sounds alarm over foreign daycare chains [CA-ON]
2 Apr 08

· Majority of nursery staff are poorly qualified [UK]
2 Apr 08

· Corporate link to child care draws concern [CA-ON]
1 Apr 08

· Childcare subsidization starts today [CN]
1 Apr 08

· Low wages causing widespread recruitment problems in community social services—study [CA-BC]
25 Mar 08

-------------------------------------------

March 28, 2008

Today’s Parent magazine
28 Mar 08
- Articles from the April 2008 issue of Today’s Parent discussing child care in Canada available online.

ECEC: Where does Canada stand and what does the future hold?
28 Mar 08
- Colloquium featuring Martha Friendly and Linda White discussing early childhood education and care in Canada is available online for viewing.

Income splitting and joint taxation of couples: What’s fair
28 Mar 08
- Report from the Institute for Research and Public Policy provides an assessment of proposals for income splitting in the Canadian tax system.

Australian social policy expert Deborah Brennan tours Canada
28 Mar 08
- Deborah Brennan will discuss lessons learned from child care in Australia. Tour dates and locations are provided.

The state of preschool 2007: State preschool yearbook
28 Mar 08
- Report by the National Institute for Early Education Research profiling the state-funded prekindergarten programs for children at ages 3 and 4 in the United States.

child care in the news

· College day-care centre closing; St. Lawrence facility opened in 1969 [CA-ON]
28 Mar 08

· Mums still home, despite the hype [AU]
26 Mar 08

· Families get child-care boost [CA-NS]
26 Mar 08

· Ontario budget 2008: More disappointment for working families [CA-ON]
25 Mar 08

· EI extension had Ottawa squirming [CA-ON]
22 Mar 08

-------------------------------------------

March 20, 2008

Early childhood education markets and democratic experimentalism: Two models for early childhood education and care
20 Mar 08
- Discussion paper by Peter Moss comparing two models for the provision of ECEC services, the model of the market and that of democratic experimentalism.

Budget 2008: What’s in it for women?
20 Mar 08
- Report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives addresses the disregard of women’s issues and concerns in the 2008 federal budget.

Hemispheric commitment to early childhood education
20 Mar 08
- Document signed by the Ministers of Education of the Organization of American States to strengthen early childhood education in their countries.

The physical environment
20 Mar 08
- Article from Child Care Exchange magazine discussing key physical environmental characteristics in child care settings.


· State-funded preschool enrollment passes one million mark, yet most 3 and 4-year olds are denied access to public preschool programs [US]
19 Mar 08

· Why more moms do the daycare shuffle [CA-ON]
18 Mar 08

· Child-care rebate bad for kids [AU]
18 Mar 08

· Child care isn’t child’s play [CA-ON]
17 Mar 08

· The kindergarten dilemma [CA-PE]
14 Mar 08

---------------------------------------

March 14

Lunchbox Speaker’s Series: ECEC--Where does Canada stand and what does the future hold?
14 Mar 08
- Colloquium featuring Martha Friendly and Linda White on the present and future state of early childhood education and care in Canada.

The current state of Canadian family finances
14 Mar 08
- Report from the Vanier Institute of the Family on the latest Canadian trends in incomes, spending, savings, debt and net worth across family and household types.

Designing subsidy systems to meet the needs of families: An overview of policy research findings
14 Mar 08
- Report from The Urban Institute exploring key strategy and policy options states have been implementing to help eligible families gain and retain subsidies.

Good governance of early childhood care and education: Lessons from the 2007 EFA Global Monitoring Report
14 Mar 08
- Policy brief from UNESCO reviews how nations govern early childhood care and education systems, the successes, challenges and lessons learned.

Broadening and deepening our understanding of quality: Working toward inclusion and equity
14 Mar 08
- Presentations and notes from conference session focusing on understanding quality beyond commonly identified criteria.

Perfect chance to improve child care [AU]
14 Mar 08

· More spaces for child care [CA-QC]
13 Mar 08

· Reducing kids to numbers [AU]
12 Mar 08

· Extra fees sought for ‘free’ childcare [NZ]
12 Mar 08

· Play: The Swedish way [SE]
11 Mar 08

· Alberta spends less on daycare than it gets in federal funding [CA-AB]
7 Mar 08

---------------------------------------

March 7

Child care must serve kids not corporate shareholders
7 Mar 08
- Article by Martha Friendly and Margaret McCain discussing for-profit child care in Canada and Australia.

Still left behind: A comparison of living costs and income assistance in British Columbia
7 Mar 08
- Report from SPARC BC discussing how effective BC Employment and Assistance benefits are at covering minimum living expenses.

Partnering for preschool: A study of center directors in New Jersey’s mixed-delivery Abbott program
7 Mar 08
- Report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment on directors accounts of the Abbott Preschool Program implementation since 1999.

International Women’s Day 2008 marks a special anniversary
7 Mar 08
- Article from NUPGE celebrating International Women’s Day 2008 on March 8th.

Digital copies of selected Children in Europe magazine issues available for purchasing
7 Mar 08
- Children in Europe is a magazine for everyone working with and interested in issues concerning children 0-10 and their families.

· Morgan Stanley unit sets deal with ABC Learning [US]
6 Mar 08

· Busy Bees childcare vouchers up for sale [UK]
5 Mar 08

· Whistleblower raises child safety fears [UK]
5 Mar 08

· Parents cautioned about early Grade 1 start [CA-PE]
4 Mar 08

· Child-care wait list shows new rules work [CA-ON]
4 Mar 08

· Activists urge freeze on daycare licences [CA-ON]
3 Mar 08

**********************

more WHAT'S NEW ONLINE »

more CC IN THE NEWS »

**********************

Subscribe to the CRRU email announcements list
Sign up to receive email notices of updates and new postings on the CRRU website which will inform you of policy developments in early childhood care and education, new research and resources for policy, newly released CRRU publications, and upcoming events of interest to the child care and broader community.

New Issue File:
ELCC and the federal budget 2006
May 2006
On May 2, 2006 the Conservative government presented its first budget since the election of January 23rd. This ISSUE file provides links to budget documents pertaining to child care, as well as responses from opposition parties, child care and other civil society organizations, and a selection of media coverage.

Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2006
The Childcare Resource and Research Unit has periodically assembled Canadian data to produce a national snapshot of early childhood care and education. The seventh edition of Early childhood education and care in Canada and the second edition of Trends and analysis present 2005 and 2006 data. These data – together with data compiled for earlier editions – 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2004 reveal trends in ECEC over a decade and a half.

Early childhood education and care in Canada 2006
(Table of contents + links to provincial/territorial reports, tables, Federal ECEC programs and funds, Aboriginal ECEC, and more...)
June 2007
by Martha Friendly, Jane Beach, Carolyn Ferns, and Michelle Turiano
This publication provides cross-Canada data and information on regulated child care and kindergarten by province/ territory, maternity and parental leave together with relevant demographic information.

Trends & Analysis 2007:
Early childhood education and care in Canada 2006
(PDF file - 338K, 12 pages)
December 2007
This document presents a summary and analysis of the data and identifies key issues. Includes illustrative charts and graphs.

Earlier Editions:

Early childhood education and care in Canada 2004
Early childhood education and care in Canada 2001
Early childhood education and care in Canada 1998

Source:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)



Current developments in ECEC: Provinces and territories

Regularly updated
"This resource is a collection of useful online readings about current early childhood education and care policy and program delivery issues in each province and territory. Within each jurisdiction, information is organized into three sections: news articles, online documents and useful websites."

What's New?
Links to 100+ Canadian, U.S. and international resources from Jan 2003 to the present.
Topics covered include the following: Child care in Quebec - Welfare incomes 2002 (National Council of Welfare) - Irish mothers entering the labour force - Investing in the child care industry - extended parental leave - Child poverty persists. 2003 report card on child poverty in Ontario - Redesigning the welfare mix for families (Canadian Policy Research Networks) - Subsidized child care - Multilateral Framework on Early Learning and Child Care : "first step to national child care program" - Third national survey of First Nations people on-reserve - Child care backgrounder: Federal budget 2003 - Early childhood education and care in Canada 2001 - Moving mountains: Work, family and children with special needs - Toronto report card on children 2002 - Action plan for children 2003 - much more...
NOTE: Click on the links at the top or bottom of the What's New page to go to a similar collection of links for the year 2002 (over 100 links), and earlier - right back to January 2000

ISSUE files - links to over 20 theme pages, each filled with contextual information and links to further info...
Themes include early childhood education and care in the October 2003 Ontario election, proposed changes to Quebec's child care system (Summer 2003), early childhood education and care in the federal Liberal leadership race, recent federal/provincial/territorial government budgets, the United Nations Special Session on Children, the child care workforce, the Social Union Framework Agreement, Policy developments in Ontario (Fall 2001), the Early Childhood Development Agreement, child care quality and children's development, the rights of the child, and much more; click on the Issues link above to access the content for each theme.
Three sample issues:
The Social Union Framework Agreement: Issues in Canadian policy making
The Early Childhood Development Agreement
Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Canadian women in the paid labour force


Towards a national system of early learning and child care - 2005
- includes a broad (and growing) collection of government and non-governmental reports, press releases, news articles and other documents dealing with the new federal-provincial-territorial arrangements for early learning and childcare in Canada.

OECD Thematic Review of ECEC: Canada Reports
"This policy analysis within an international framework is perhaps the most important that Canada has had in early learning and child care. The OECD Country Note and the Background Report on Canada were released today by Social Development Canada. The content and sprit of this work is likely to inform and shape how the federal election commitment to early learning and child care is actualized. For the release of this report, CRRU has prepared an ISSUE file that provides resources related to this landmark study.

The ISSUE file consists of:
- an overview of the OECD Thematic Review of ECEC
- links to the Country Note and Canada’s Background Report
- highlights from the Country Note recommendations
- other important reports from the Thematic Review of ECEC and related readings
- relevant news articles
- responses to the Canada reports

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canada's child care is failing, OECD says
October 25, 2004
By Margaret Philp
"(...) The review of Canada, one of 20 nations whose early-learning policies have come under OECD scrutiny, paints a picture of a child-care system adrift, with no overarching vision. It is underfunded, with pitiful staff salaries and subsidies inequitably doled out to a small number of the poorest families. The premises of child-care centres are often shabby, workers are poorly trained and frequently quit. Many centres catering to aboriginal families are low-quality with "tokenistic concessions to indigenous language." And waiting lists are long, with more than half of Canadian children stuck in unregulated care."
Source:
Globe and Mail

Canada's child-care system languishing: OECD
25 Oct 2004
"OTTAWA - A new OECD reports calls Canada's child-care system a patchwork of dismal programs that offers basic babysitting but not much more. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reviewed 20 countries. It said Canada's system was chronically under-funded and found subsidies inequitably distributed to a small number of the poorest families. As part of the report, four European investigators toured dozens of programs in Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, the only four provinces that agreed to be in the review. The report is to be released Monday."
Source:
CBC.ca

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quality highest in non-profit child care: Economists
Press Release
January 10, 2005
"Non-profit child care centres outscore their commercial counterparts in all aspects of early learning and care, says a new Canada-wide study released today. The study, by two University of Toronto economists, is the first to statistically analyze ratings for observed quality in child care centres, finding that non-profit centres do better on every measure. Gordon Cleveland and Michael Krashinsky of U of T’s Division of Management authored The quality gap: A study of non-profit and commercial child care centres in Canada."

Complete report:

The quality gap: A study of non-profit and
commercial child care centres in Canada
(PDF file - 353K, 20 pages)
By Gordon Cleveland and Michael Krashinsky

Related Link:

Non-profit child care centres rate better, study shows
Margaret Philp
January 10, 2005
Globe and Mail
"(...)In a report to be released Monday, two University of Toronto economists wade into the debate with a finding that it's more than just government funding that sets non-profit child care apart — even correcting for higher levels of government support, the not-for-profit sector provides better care. In their study of quality ratings from 325 daycare classrooms across Canada, economists Gordon Cleveland and Michael Krashinsky found that non-profit child care centres scored, overall, 10 per cent higher than their for-profit counterparts. While the bulk of child care centres falls into the mediocre range of the scale, most of the top-ranked centres were non-profits and a disproportionate number at the bottom were commercial."

Source:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit

Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) and Canadian women
"This Issue File collects selected readings that recognize the importance of accessible and affordable ELCC to women’s economic equality and to fully engaging in society.
This Issue File is organized into five sections:
- online contextual information about the conditions facing women in Canada;
- online documents about Canada’s international commitments and ELCC;
- online documents that feature the importance of ELCC for women’s equality;
- print resources; and
- useful websites for additional readings.

IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY...MARCH 8, 1986
by Martha Friendly
Childcare Resource and Research Unit
March 2006
International Women’s Day 2006 is the twentieth anniversary of the Report of the federal government’s first and only Task Force on Child Care. The key recommendation of the "Katie Cooke Task Force" was a universal system of child care – co-funded by federal and provincial governments. It would have affordable parent fees, would be designed and managed by the provinces under national standards and would be built through a gradual increase in the supply of regulated child care until the year 2001 when it would serve all children and families. The cost at that time, the Task Force calculated, would be $11.3 billion.

Also by Martha Friendly:

Child Care and Canadian Federalism in the 1990s:
Canary in a Coal Mine
(PDF file - 275K, 49 pages)
Martha Friendly
Childcare Resource and Research Unit
August 2000

Related Links:

Indepth: Day care in Canada
Source:
CBC

Un Québec fou de ses garderies - [français]
Source:
Archives Radio-Canada

Towards a national system of early learning and child care
Regularly updated
"(...) On April 29, 2005 the governments of Canada and Manitoba struck an historic Agreement-in-Principle on early learning and child care. This was followed by a similar agreement between the federal government and the province of Saskatchewan. These agreements are the beginning of what is hoped to be a series of strong bilateral agreements between the federal government and the provinces/territories. These historic agreements build on a meeting of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services in November 2004 and a subsequent meeting in February 2005. They (with the exception of Quebec) agreed to shared principles to guide the development of a new national system of early learning and child care."

Current developments in Early Childhood Education and Care: Provinces and territories
Regularly updated
"This resource is a collection of useful online readings about current early childhood education and care policy and program delivery issues in each province and territory. Within each jurisdiction, information is organized into three sections: news articles, online documents and useful websites."

Canadians favour Liberal child-care plan: poll
June 20, 2006
"An Environics Research poll suggests 50 per cent of Canadians prefer the national day-care program proposed by the former government. In comparison, 35 per cent said they favour the Conservative government's plan to give parents of children under the age of six $1,200 a year. The poll was commissioned by the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada. (...)"

-----------------------------------

Martha Friendly interview on CTV's Canada AM [requires Windows Media Player]

[Martha is coordinator of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit]

*******************************************************************************


Fact and fantasy: Eight myths about early childhood education and care

by Gordon Cleveland and Michael Krashinsky
Economics, Division of Management,
University of Toronto at Scarborough
July 2003
Fact and Fantasy - complete report (PDF file - 765K, 79pages)
Table of Contents - download individual chapters (in small PDF files).

The myths are:
1. Young children need full-time care from their mothers.
2. Child care harms children.
3. Families should pay for their own child care.
4. Parents always know best.
5. Stay-at-home mothers are discriminated against in public policy.
6. Mothers would prefer to stay home.
7. Child care erodes family values.
8.We can't afford early childhood education and care.

A BRIEFing NOTE summary of this paper is available:
Fact and Fantasy: Summary (PDF file - 149K, 6 pages)
"This paper examines eight myths often used to argue against public support for early childhood education and care. Its main objective is to respond to these eight myths, to subject them and associated research to critical scrutiny, and to respond in a popular fashion. Research evidence and logic are combined to provide a readable, economically-oriented critique to these frequently heard assertions.

Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC (CCCABC)
The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC is a registered society, incorporated under the Society Act on November 2, 1995. The original child care advocacy organization, the BC Daycare Action Coalition, was formed in 1982. The purposes of the Society are to promote and support quality community-based child care services that benefit children, families and the public and in the best interests of society.
- incl. links to: * About Us * What's New * CCCABC Materials * Take Action * Advocacy resources * Calendar

CCCABC Materials
- links to materials published by the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC:
* Position & Policy Papers
* Briefs
* Letters
* Newsletters

Advocacy Resources
* News articles
* Publications
* Advocate's quick facts
* Timeline of child care in BC
* Advocacy Tools
* Links

BC CHILD CARE - NOT FOR SALE
October 23, 2007
On October 1, 2007, the BC government announced that, for the first time, private companies could receive major capital child care grants. The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC predicted that this change in public policy would make BC attractive to large foreign owned child care corporations. Our worst fears have now been confirmed. We have learned that a foreign-based corporation is actively trying to take over community-based child care providers across BC. If they succeed - the face of child care in BC will be dramatically changed now and for a long time to come.
This is not the solution to child care in BC.

Hindsight from Australia - Foresight for BC (PDF file - 200K, 4 pages)
October 23, 2007
"(...)Analysis from Australia suggests that the domination of corporate child care has decreased accountability, quality, affordability and accessibility. Increased public spending on child care has not produced child care services in the public domain ñ in other words an infrastructure for the long term."

Related Links:

- BC Association of Child Care Services
- Early Childhood Educators of BC
- School Age Child Care Association of BC
- Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre
- Western Canada Family Child Care Association of BC
- Child Care Choices - BC Child Care Resource & Referral Network
- Child Care Options - Resource and Referral Program
- First Call

Related Links:
- Go to the 2006 Federal Election and General Political Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/politics.htm

First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy
"The First Call: BC Child & Youth Advocacy Coalition is a cross-sectoral, non-partisan coalition in BC. Our coalition is made up of over 60 provincial organizations and 25 mobilizing communities. In addition, we have a network of thousands of community groups and individuals. Our partners work together on public education, community mobilization, and policy advocacy to ensure that all children and youth have the opportunities and resources required to achieve their full potential and to participate in the challenges of creating a better society."

Early Childhood Development Resources

First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada (FNCFCS)
"The purpose of the Caring Society is to promote the well being of all First Nations children, youth, families and communities with a particular focus on the prevention of, and response to, child maltreatment."

NOTE:
For links to content from the FNCFCS website, please see the First Nations Links page of this website: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/1stbkmrk.htm


Founders' Network
"The Founders' Network links a diverse group of individuals from across Canada and in other countries. We are an international collection of people interested in promoting the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR), science and technology, early childhood, economic issues, determinants of health and human development."

Reversing the Brain Drain : The Early Years Study - Final Report (PDF file - 1.1MB, 207 pages)
February 1999 (Modified 06/2002, according to the Adobe file info)
Co-Chairs : Margaret McCain and J. Fraser Mustard

Papers - links to several other papers in the Early Years study

Related Link:
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR)

GoDaycare.com
"...an independent resource for Canadian parents who are looking for daycare centres for their kids. GoDaycare.com's reviews, ratings and comments provide a realistic perspective of childcare providers in Canada because they are written by parents for parents"

National Children's Alliance
The National Children's Alliance is a group of more than 30 national organizations with an interest in the well-being of children and youth. National Children's Alliance organizations are working to promote the implementation of the National Children's Agenda.

List of NCA Member Organizations
-
Links - to almost 50 related websites

National Symposium : “Building Momentum” (PDF file - 108K, 38 pages)
March 22-24, 2002
Symposium proceedings, posted May 2002
"The National Children’s Alliance invited its members across the country to participate in three days of strategy development around the Alliance priorities for the next two years. Sixty-five plus representatives of the membership came to Ottawa to share their best ideas and thoughts in the discussions."
Reports and Papers
- links to over 20 symposium papers, discussion papers, position papers and summary reports from the National Children's Alliance
National Children's Alliance
April 23, 2002
Response from the National Children’s Alliance to Knowledge Matters (PDF file - 11K, 3 pages)
"...a working group of the National Children’s Alliance met to review the paper and provide feedback to HRDC. (...) As a starting point, the working group highlighted some key areas that were not clearly identified in the paper that need be addressed in the consultation process."
Related Link: Knowledge Matters (Human Resources Development Canada)
Source :
National Children's Alliance
The National Children's Alliance is a group of more than 30 national organizations with an interest in the well-being of children and youth. National Children's Alliance organizations are working to promote the implementation of the National Children's Agenda.

December 2001 National Children's Alliance Bulletin (PDF file - 50K, 10 pages)
By Dianne Bascombe – National Children’s Alliance
- incl. Challenges for a National Children’s Agenda - Early Childhood Development Agreement Update - ECD Accord Update - National Children’s Alliance Regional Contacts - Provincial/Territorial Government Contacts - ECD Announcements made by Provincial and Territorial Governments
Source : National Children’s Alliance

Brief to the Standing Committee on Finance
October 30, 2001
National Children's Alliance
"...the voluntary / NGO sector’s participation in the monitoring of the ECD is vital to establish guidelines and partnerships in monitoring and research and to develop working relationships."

First Baby Steps Taken Towards a National Children's Agenda
Press Release
April 4, 2001
After many years of planning, advocacy work and policy development, members of the National Children's Alliance - a coalition of voluntary and NGO organizations dedicated to children's issues - are finally seeing results. The federal government's $2.2 billion dollar investment in early childhood development c