When Minister Freeland stood in the House of Commons last Monday to deliver her first Fall Economic Statement (FES), she did so not only as an MP or Minister, but as a working mother. As part of the FES, she announced the first steps in a multi-year plan to build a Canada-wide childcare system that would reduce costs for families and encourage more women with children to join the workforce.
Freeland committed the government to create a new federal secretariat on early learning and childcare intended to work with the provinces and territories to design a national system modelled on the publicly funded system in place in Quebec, where parents have access to child-care services from between $7.20 and $20 a day. This is not a new storyline for the Liberals.
In 2005, under Prime Minister Paul Martin and Social Development Minister Ken Dryden, the federal Liberals worked on developing national childcare. The minority Liberal government pledged to bring in a program worth $5 billion over five years. Prime Minister Paul Martin said that previous proposals always floundered over the question of provincial funding but he believed that this time, they would sign on.
After the 2006 Federal Election, however, the new Conservative government cancelled the ten bilateral agreements reached by Martin and Dryden. Prime Minister Stephen Harper replaced them with a universal child benefit that gave parents with children under six years of age $1,200 per year.
Fast forward 15 years and Minister Freeland is promising that the 2021 federal budget will present a more concrete plan and funding for Ottawa to establish “affordable, accessible, inclusive and high-quality child care from coast to coast to coast.” The federal government is committing $20 million now to begin the work of crafting its new “child care vision.” The government says the need for such a national system is obvious, given how the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the precariousness of work and the enormous burden of childcare, particularly for working mothers. A national childcare program is seen as a key policy instrument to increase labour force participation among women. This will help boost Canada’s economic recovery and increase equality of opportunity in Canadian society.
“COVID-19 has caused a she-cession, rolling back many of the hard-won gains women have worked for over past decades,” said Minister Freeland during her speech. “Canada cannot be competitive until all Canadian women have access to affordable childcare.”
This issue has already become a political hot potato because along with pharmacare, the NDP are looking to see the childcare plan come to fruition in the federal budget. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said in recent press interviews that the NDP will continue to support the minority government, but only if they see their key policies/asks reflected.
The COVID-19 pandemic has identified gaps in Canada’s social safety net. Quality, affordable child care for all has eluded Canadian governments since the Royal Commission on the Status of Women linked universal childcare to equality fifty years ago. Will it take a pandemic and a working mother as Finance Minister to finally implement a national childcare plan in Canada? It might just stop the she-cession in its tracks and provide the support that women need to have equal opportunity to build the country back better.