Miles to Go...The Policy Context of Child Care in Canada.

This article examines Canadian child care and child care policy in light of four goals: alleviating poverty, fostering equality for women, providing early education and child development services, and promoting economic well-being. Examples show the practical application of policy that meets each of the goals, and Canadian child care policy and services are assessed. The article concludes with proposals for child care that would meet all four goals.There is not a country in the industrialized world today that has not struggled with the problem of child care* but public support and provision of child care services vary enormously among nations. Approaches to child care policy and forms of services--how much public funding is available, how it is distributed, eligibility for participation in funding or services, responsibility for service development, and characteristics of services--have been very much shaped by each nation's motivations or goals for providing child care. Four main goals for the provision of child care can be identified--alleviating poverty, fostering women's equality, optimizing child development, and promoting economic development as a benefit to society.Goals of Child CareAlleviating PovertyThe goal of alleviating poverty recognizes that limited access to child care is a barrier to the participation of low-income parents (often single mothers) in the paid labour force. For example, in both Canada and the United States, the motivation to reduce poverty was the historical impetus for the early development of child care. Today, federal spending for subsidized child care and child care allowances or vouchers associated with job training in both countries are still linked to this goal.Fostering Women's EqualityAs a large and growing number of women with young children have entered the paid labour force in industrialized countries, child care services and family leave have been recognized as essential components of the movement toward women's equality. Sweden, for example, explicitly states a policy objective of promoting women's equality as a rationale for child care services and family leave(1) [Swedish Institute 1991]. In Canada, paid maternity leave serves to remove, in part, gender-related obstacles to workforce equality for women.(1)Optimizing Child DevelopmentHigh quality child care/early childhood education promotes early learning and healthy child development. In European countries such as France, Italy, and Belgium, early learning and optimal child development were the initial motivations for the widespread introduction of child care/early childhood education services for children older than 30 to 36 months. It is interesting to note that in these three countries, enrollment statistics for early childhood programs suggest that many preschool children participate in the free, full school-day programs (delivered by the public education system) even if their mothers are not in the paid workforce (as many as 95% of French, and 90% of Italian and Belgian three-year-olds are enrolled) [Moss 1990].In Canada and the United States, early learning and healthy development are the goal of publicly funded kindergartens as well as Head Start programs. These two kinds of programs are distinct. Kindergarten is commonly provided as a universal child development program for all children (usually as part of the public schools). Head Start is seen as compensating for the deleterious effects of poverty on children's development and is provided for selected groups of children at risk for poor development.(3)Promoting Economic Well-BeingThe fourth goal combines some elements of each of the other three but focuses on the collective benefits to the broader society rather than to individuals. This perspective has two aspects.The first recognizes that child care allows women to participate in the labour force, thereby strengthening the labour force and the tax base. …