Report: Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Released on August 28, 2024, the current (14th) edition of Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2023, along with the Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2023: Summary and Analysis are now available for download on the childcarecanada.org website.
The Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2023: Summary and Analysis outlines key findings from the Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2023 (ECEC in Canada 2023) under six headings:
· Canada-wide developments:
o The Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) initiative has been in place for three years.
o Bill C-35, An Act Respecting Early Learning and Child Care, received royal assent on March 19, 2024.
o Substantial new federal funding was provided to offset child care services’ loss of parent fee income, with provinces and territories responsible for using their share of these funds to design and manage the new funding arrangements. “Although parent fee reduction initiatives were put in place more quickly than had been anticipated, the data in ECEC in Canada 2023 show that other key touchstones – accessibility, inclusivity, and quality – are still works in progress, with varying incremental changes across Canada.”
o “To support the child care workforce, most provinces and territories have introduced wage enhancement, benefits, pensions, and/or wage grids, with six jurisdictions now having wage grids in place.”
o “Expansion of the supply of child care has been modest relative to demand. The federal government has allocated additional capital funds for expansion in both the 2022 and 2024 federal budgets, but the effects of these funds on the supply of child care were not yet evident in 2023.”
o Although a key element of the CWELCC plan is that expansion would be primarily public and non-profit, the data in ECEC in Canada 2023 show that much of the expansion has been in the for-profit sector in a majority of provinces/territories.”
· Parent fees and affordability:
o “All jurisdictions have dramatically reduced parent fees, with six using fees set by the province or territory to reach the 2026 target of $10/day….British Columbia uses two fee reduction mechanisms: reducing all fees for children aged six or younger by a set amount, and growing its set-fee $10/day sector incrementally.”
· Accessibility, expansion and coverage:
o “Child care provision increased in the March 2021-March 2023 period. This expansion built on a net loss of child care during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021), which showed Canada’s first recorded net loss of child care spaces.”
o Table 2 of the report summary indicates that BC had 58,466 regulated full-day centre spaces for children 0-5 years in 2021, and 62,542 in 2023. The report notes, however: “…Due to data gaps and/or variation in how data is collected, it is sometimes difficult to disentangle some of the child care provision for 0-5 year olds. Additionally, as full school-day kindergarten for five-year-olds has become the norm Canada-wide, and kindergarten for four-year-olds is also increasing, kindergarten has come to serve as the main child care arrangement for many four- and five-year-olds.”
o Across Canada, “In 2023, there were enough full- or part-day spaces to cover 31% of 0-5 year olds (not including before- and after-school programs), an increase of 3% from 2021…. The coverage rate of 31% (an increase from 28% in 2021) includes full- and part-day spaces, or a centre space for roughly 3 out of 10 children in this age group. This does not include family child care or before- and after-school child care for 0-5 year olds. Nor does it include those children for whom kindergarten is the main or sole ECEC arrangement.”
· Ownership of child care services:
o “Between 2021 and 2023, the percent of child care spaces that were for-profit decreased in four jurisdictions, remained the same in three, and increased in six; all changes were small. However, much of the net growth was in the for-profit sector.” Table 3 of the summary indicates that BC had the highest percent of net growth in full-day centre spaces that was for-profit (2021-2023) at 84%, moving from for-profit full-day centre spaces representing 65% of full-day centre spaces in 2021, to 67% in 2023.
· The child care workforce:
o “Challenges affecting the recruitment and retention of a qualified child care workforce are recognized as critical for the quality, maintenance, and expansion of child care programs…. Most provinces and territories have introduced workforce measures such as pensions, benefits, wage enhancement, and/or wage grids, but comprehensive workforce strategies are not yet in place.” Table 4 of the summary indicates that, as of 2023, BC had introduced wage enhancement, but had not yet introduced a wage grid or province-wide benefits.
· Public funding for regulated child care:
o Table 5 of the summary compares public ELCC spending in the 2018-2019 and 2022-2023 fiscal years [2020-2021 data was not used due to impacts of COVID-19]. “A comparison of Canada-wide child care spending (which includes provincial/territorial/federal dollars) for fiscal years 2018-2019 and 2022-2023 shows a substantial increase of 61%, with a rise in total from $5.8 billion to $9.8 billion. Total federal funding allocated to provinces/territories totalled $5 billion for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.” The federal allocation to BC for 2022-2023 was $609 million. BC child care spending increased from $498 billion in 2018-2022 to $1,172 million in 2022-2023.