Toronto Sun, September 23, 2024
Excerpt: "Debates regarding federal child-care policy have been heating up as the Liberal Party seeks to defend its $10-a-day program from various critics.
While there will always be partisan debates about the best approach toward child care, what is often left by the wayside is that CWELCC is already providing affordable child care to 938,000 children aged 0-5.
The primary issue facing the program is a market one: Increased demand has revealed pre-existing labour and infrastructure shortages. Canada does not have enough trained early childhood educators or child-care spaces. To solve this problem the federal government needs to address capacity shortages directly. One way to do this is to provide child-care operators with a clear, predictable operational funding formula to have a clear view of expected revenues and encourage long-term investments, including increased workforce compensation.
Another aspect of the debate on child care revolves around funding for licensed and unlicensed care. To be clear, licensed child care includes home daycares, centres, before and after-school programs, and preschools. These are regulated and must adhere to standards regarding safety, staff qualifications, child-to-adult ratios, and quality — in the same way that public schools in Canada follow guidelines related to curriculum and educational standards."
