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CRRU e-news 
Weekly newsletter of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit  27/10/21

What's happening at CRRU?

The Childcare Resource and Research Unit is pleased to announce that our paper COVID-19 and childcare in Canada: A tale of ten provinces and three territories has been published in the Journal of Childhood Studies. We would like to thank our co-author and long time partner Barry Forer for his hard work along with guest-editors Dr. Susan Prentice and Dr. Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw. 

Our Executive Director, Martha Friendly, will be taking part in the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto's panel discussion The next four years: What a gender-just economic recovery should look like on October 28th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm EDT.

New federal minister responsible for child care

The Childcare Resource and Research Unit team extends warm congratulations to Karina Gould, who has been appointed Minister for Children, Families and Social Development. We also applaud the realignment of federal ministerial portfolios to divide housing and child care—a change that will support the work needed to build an excellent Canadian early learning and child care system. We are all very much looking forward to working toward this goal with Minister Gould—a child care champion. 

Listen to Minister Gould's interview with Ottawa Morning on her new role, and how she hopes to get Ontario to sign to the federal child care plan.

Québec's major reforms of child care 

Building on the recommendations received in the public consultation on educational child care services earlier this year, the government of Québec introduced a bill that enacts major reforms to the child care system, including specifying the right of a child to receive educational childcare services as well as the obligation for the Minister of Families in ensuring the development of subsidized child care where there is inadequate supply. The Minister also presented an action plan committing at least three billion dollars ($1.8B in new spending) to creating 37,000 new subsidized spaces by March 31, 2025 including 1,000 spaces for Indigenous communities. While 19,000 spaces (including 3,500 non-subsidized spaces to be converted) are already underway, the government has launched a call for projects to create the remaining 17,000 spaces. This plan also includes an increase in the child care tax credit. This follows the government’s recent announcement about a raise of 12% to 17% in wages for early childhood educators in publicly funded programs (CPEs) as staff continue to strike and protest across the province amidst negotiations of a new contract.

Proposed legislation
An Act to amend the Educational Childcare Act to improve access to the educational childcare services network and complete its development
National Assembly of Québec, 2021

Action plan
Plan d’action pour compléter le réseau des services de garde éducatifs à l’enfance
Ministère de la Famille, 21 October 2021

Press release from the Quebec Association of CPEs
QC: Un accès pour toutes les familles…enfin! 
L’Association québécoise des centres de la petite enfance (AQCPE), 21 October 2021

Media
QC: Plan pour les garderies: Excellent, avec 17 800 bémols
La Presse, 22 October 2021

QC: Quebec to invest $3B in daycare system, create 37,000 more subsidized spots by 2025
CBC News, 21 October 2021

QC: A spot for every child: for the first time, Quebec daycare will be a guarantee under new overhaul
CTV News, 21 October 2021

QC: Pour les 37 000 places en garderie, ça prendra près de 18 000 nouvelles éducatrices
Le Soleil, 21 October 2021

QC: Quebec makes new offer to daycare educators in search of agreement
CTV News, 22 October 2021

Research, policy and practice

COVID-19 and childcare in Canada: A tale of ten provinces and three territories
Journal of Childhood Studies, 25 October 2021
This paper examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave on Canadian childcare. Using results from 8,300 responses to a Canada-wide survey of centres and regulated family childcare, it illustrates how limited public funding and reliance on parent fees made childcare unsustainable and led to closures. The lack of public funding created financial stress and uncertainty about the future among centres across Canada, including in provinces offering more robust support. The paper concludes by considering how dynamics set in motion by the pandemic shaped political developments and may ultimately contribute to the transformation of Canadian childcare to a publicly funded systemic approach.

Why elections matter: National child-care plan could create workplace gender equality
The Conversation, 19 October 2021
In this article, Professor Claudine Mangen describes how a national child care strategy proposed by the re-elected Liberal Canadian government can bring about progress for gender equality in both the supply and demand of labour. Mangen notes that a national system of affordable child care could help women transition from unpaid caregiving work to paid work, address the woman-as-caregiver norm and open up new possibilities for both men and women in the labour market.

The persistence of poverty: How real equality can break the vicious cycles
United Nations, 19 July 2021
In the present report, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, observes that children born in disadvantaged families are denied equal opportunities, and examines the channels through which poverty is perpetuated, in the areas of health, housing, education and employment. The report highlights that investments in early childhood education and care is essential to break the cycles that perpetuate poverty, specifically maternity benefits, universal child benefits, and access to affordable, high quality child care for low-income families.

Child care in the news  

CA: Prime Minister welcomes new Cabinet
Office of the Prime Minister, 26 October 2021

NL: Mom wants child-care changes after son unaccounted for during inspection visits to St. John's daycare
CBC News, 25 October 2021

ON: ​​Advocates, organizations call for provincial plan to end Ontario’s ‘she-cession’
Global News, 26 October 2021

ON: Video: Shortage of early childhood educators creating long waitlists for child care
CTV News, 26 October 2021

ON: Thanks is not enough on this Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Day
The Hamilton Spectator, 21 October 2021 

ON: Advocates call on Premier Ford to include decent work, expansion of non-profit spaces in Ontario’s child care agreement with the federal government
Business Wire, 21 October 2021

ON: Waterloo Region hopes new program will create more diverse child care
The Record, 21 October 2021

ON: Video: Birch proposals: The early fight for child care quality
Rise Up!, 28 June 2021

MB: Manitoba Métis Federation opens newest childcare centre in Dauphin 
Global News, 24 October 2021

AB: The Brief: Measuring child care affordability
Business Council of Alberta, 12 October 2021

BC: Two high-powered Vancouver business execs are changing maternity leave with Maturn
BC Business, 22 October 2021

US: Buttigieg’s paternity leave is a reminder that the US prioritizes work over family
The Guardian, 23 October 2021

EU: Childcare costs across Europe: How do we compare?
Irish Examiner, 22 October 2021

EU: Austrian opposition calls for free all-day childcare
The Local, 21 October 2021

INTL: To end poverty, invest in children
Social Europe, 20 October 2021

Events

The next four years: What a gender-just economic recovery should look like
Woman Abuse Council of Toronto, 28 October 2021, 6:00-8:00 pm EDT
The panel discussion will walk through emergent themes of a gender transformative recovery as it relates to the 2021 federal political campaign commitments, including child care, economic recovery, violence against women, and femicide.

Online Documents Catalogue on the CRRU websiteThe CRRU email newsletter, sent out weekly to a subscribed list, lists new policy documents and news articles added to the website that week. These become part of the website’s Online Document Catalogue of ECEC-pertinent resources. 
Visit our website for more resources
     
Resources on the CRRU website: Publications, Online Documents Catalogue, Blog and ISSUE files

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