Press Room

CANADIAN CHILD CARE FEDERATION COUNSELS GOVERNMENTS TO LISTEN TO CANADIANS — AFFORDABLE QUALITY CHILD CARE IS A TOP PRIORITY

For immediate release

October 10, 2008

OTTAWA –Environics polling results released Monday show that a lack of affordable child care is a serious issue for 77% of Canadians, yet the Government of Canada continues to disregard this critical issue that affects millions of Canadian families.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s recent and modest election proposal to adjust the $100-per-month Universal Child Care Benefit fails to solve the Canadian population’s increasing demand for affordable, high-quality early learning and child care services. With 70% of parents in the workforce, both women and men, there simply isn’t enough quality child care available to parents who need to keep working.

“We are disappointed with their lack of leadership and not listening to families who struggle in today’s economy to find real child care spaces and real choice so they can work and contribute to the economy,” says Canadian Child Care Federation President, Don Giesbrecht. “In this election, there are distinct choices being offered from other platforms that provide a more balanced approach by investing directly into child care programs along with direct support through the UCCB family allowance. We need leadership to provide a national framework that will ensure high-quality services and financial accountability across the country.”

Affordable, accessible, high-quality programs help parents and their families, but also allow children to thrive, by offering positive social and emotional development environments. When children fail to thrive, so do the societies they live in and child care should not be left to a buyer beware philosophy. If Canada is to prosper and weather the current economic challenges of today and in the future, it will need a high-quality, literate, innovative and adaptable adult population that can succeed in the competitive global economy. The time is now for governments to act to support parents and children.

CCCF urges voters to demand better long term plans that create new child care spaces across the country and train and recruit the qualified staff needed to oversee them. A national child-care program was within our reach in the last election. Canadians are clearly showing the issue is serious in their minds in this election too and will need to vote in a government that will make national child care a reality.

Canada’s largest early learning and child care organization, CCCF is a federation of 20 provincial/territorial organizations from across the country, representing 11,000 members – practitioners, academics, parents and policy makers. CCCF is committed to excellence in early learning and child care through best and promising practice, capacity building, and collaborations, networks and partnerships. For more information, visit www.qualitychildcarecanada.ca

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Media contact:
Don Giesbrecht,
President of CCCF,
(204) 889-9858
Cell: 204-223-9369