2024 Accessible, Affordable, Flexible and High-Quality Childcare

Published in: GENERAL

Sub-Category:

GENERAL

Resolution Number:

500.10.31

Background:

The impacts of not having accessible childcare services affect not only how much money a woman can make, but the quality of her children’s life as well. Several European countries note that childcare places are too far from work and home, or hours are not flexible with work hours and vice versa. Even in wealthy countries it is highly unaffordable, with low-income parents needing to spend up to half their yearly salary on childcare. Also, eligibility criteria are often unfavourable for marginalised families, even though they need it most. In addition, there is a high rate of staff turnover and a lack of qualified childcare staff which results in a serious lack of services The Government of Canada needs to continue it’s funding for the Early Learning and Child Care Program and ensure it is sufficient to fund a living wage for the childcare workforce to attract and retain workers.

An intersectional lens in policy making recognizes that people should not be defined by one characteristic – we all have our own unique, interconnected set of circumstances. The advantages and disadvantages we each face are different – they are made up by a totality of factors. Five years ago, a Forbes article called out the lack of inclusion in this space, saying “As more corporations are mandated to disclose their gender pay gap, discussions on the topic have become mainstream. But other identities such as race are largely invisible in such discussions.”

BPW International resolves that all Affiliates urge their governments to:

a.       recognize the ongoing need and impact of accessible and affordable childcare programs on the economic prosperity of women and their families in reducing poverty and aligning with the human rights goals of the United Nations;
b.      invest in childcare programs that are affordable, accessible, flexible and high-quality to improve the social and economic conditions of women, children and their families (quality of life as well as economics); and
c.       invest in a workforce strategy to ensure a sustainable supply of high-quality childcare providers through improved working conditions, wages and innovative collaborative training and certification initiatives with educational institutions, community colleges, newcomer and childcare centres.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women recognizes the Government of Canada, specifically the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth for enactment of the Government of Canada’s Canada-wide early learning and child care system. However, the expansion of the childcare sector must go hand-in-hand with expansion of the childcare workforce and a comprehensive federal/provincial/territorial recruitment and retention strategy to address fair wages, pensions and working conditions.
BPW Canada has sponsored many resolutions over the decades on childcare, most recently in 2023 “National Early Learning and Childcare Standards for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access” as well as a 2021 position paper on national Early Learning and Child Care.