The death last week of a young girl in a child care setting has brought to the spotlight the need for a properly funded and monitored child care system in Canada.

The current lack of a system, leaving parents struggling to find qualified, quality care, and sometimes with no option but to choose inadequate care is an accident waiting to happen.  And last week it did.

Why don’t we have a system?

The research exists.  We know it is good economic policy.  We know it is good social policy.  And most important we know it is good for kids! 

Our politicians know all of this.  So what’s stopping Canada from developing a high quality, publicly supported child care system?

I suspect it is the lack of public support.  When the public leads, the politicians follow.

A few weeks back the Vancouver Sun ran an article about all day kindergarten which critics equated with creating free child care.  Full day kindergarten is not child care - but that’s a topic for a future blog.  The response from readers was nasty suggesting people needing child care were bad parents simply wanting to pad their incomes.  Wrong!  Most families these days need two incomes.

And what’s wrong with caring for our communities' kids?  We all pay to educate all children once they turn 5.  Why are the years before 5 less important?  In fact they are MORE important.  That’s when the foundation for a person’s life is laid. 

I urge people to learn more about the positive spin-offs to investing in quality child care. 

Here are some links.

Linking Economic Development and Child Care  http://government.cce.cornell.edu/doc/reports/childcare/

The Benefits and Costs of Good Child Care http://www.childcarecanada.org/pubs/other/benefits/bc.pdf

Why Canada Can’t Work Without Good Child Care http://www.childcarecanada.org/pubs/pdf/BN_ecec_and_economy.pdf

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