The Conversation, July 21, 2206
Excerpt: "More than 300,000 Canadian families faced child-care access barriers last year that delayed a parent’s return to work, underscoring the urgent need to expand child-care access.
This was despite other tangible and important gains related to Canada-wide child care — the affordability of care from lower parent fees (for people who secured child-care spaces) and increases in GDP as more mothers entered the labour force.
These findings are detailed in a new Centre for the Study of Living Standards report authored by Alisaleh Shariati, the first author of this story. The study estimates that lower fees helped increase employment among mothers of young children by about 29,000 by the end of 2025. That added about $2.7 billion in direct GDP per year.
While the affordability and economic gains of Canada-wide early learning and child care programs are real, a much bigger gain could be realized by addressing the availability problem."
