Early Childhoohttp://www.childcarecanada.org/ECEC2004/index.htmld Education and Care in Canada 2004
Martha Friendly and Jane Beach, Childcare Resource and Research Unit, 16 Jun 05
Using data provided by the provincial and territorial governments and other sources, this report creates a snapshot of Canadian children and families and their relationship to regulated child care services. The study tracks and analyzes the policy implications of rapidly changing trends in family demographics and the stark regional variations that mark Canadian child care services. This is the sixth child care update since 1989.

Lessons from the Statistics: Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2004
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
On June 16, 2005 the Childcare Resource and Research Unit at the University of Toronto released a comprehensive study on the status of the child care services in Canada. This article by the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada addresses the implications of the main findings of the study and more.

Fact Sheets
In the June 2004 federal election, the federal Liberal Party made a commitment to develop a pan-Canadian child care system based on four principles - Quality, Universality, Accessibility and Developmentally appropriate programming. This set of principles is referred to as QUAD. These principles, along with the principle of Inclusion, are cornerstones of the child care community's agenda.
The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada has developed a series of fact sheets that briefly explain the principles:
Universality and Accessibility
Inclusion
Quality and developmental programming (PDF)

Early Learning and Child Care - Federal Funding in accordance with the Multilateral Framework (Budget, 2004/05)

Pan-Canadian Child Care Facts (PDF)
Q’s and A’s about Federal Funding for Child Care (PDF)
Q’s and A’s about the OECD (PDF)
Parent Voices Factsheets, March 2004

Preventing Grassroots Wilt
Charles Dobson, The Tyee; Dec 19, 2003
from The Troublemaker’s teaparty – A Manual for Effective Citizen Action

Parent Voices Resource Kit (PDF)
Cover and Introduction
Part 1 - Your Parent Voices: Making the Case for Child Care Advocacy
Part 2 - The Child Care Picture of Today
Part 3 - The Child Care Picture of Tomorrow
Part 4 - Advocacy on the Move: Strategies
Have you read parts or all of the Resource Kit? Provide us with your feedback

Perceptions of Quality Child Care
What Does the Public Want? - Fact Sheet 1  |  Fact Sheet 2 (PDF)
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada and Canadian Child Care Federation

Women Power and Politics (PDF)
Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care; October, 2003
This book answers many of the questions about how government works. It guides women on getting or staying involved, and on understanding just where in our political systems women can maximize their power. It also reviews options for democratic reform that would provide women with more access to political power and defines different forms of advocacy, including a feminist approach to organizing.

2003 Federal Pre-budget Consultation
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance will be holding public hearings on the 2003 pre-budget consultations from September 15 to November 7, 2003.
Preparing a Brief for the Federal Pre-Budget Consultation
Calling all parents - here's a tool to assist you in developing a brief to the federal Standing Committee on Finance. It includes an Introduction, a section titled "Canada's reality" and a set of recommendations.
If you have any questions and/or would like assistance in preparing your brief, you may contact the Parent Voices Project Consultant, Dianne Goldberg at info@parentvoices.ca

UNPAC, UN Platform for Action Committee (in Manitoba)
See the site map | A few highlights: Economics 101 | Feminist Economics | Basic Economcs Glossary | Advocacy

Fact and fantasy: Eight myths about early childhood education and care (PDF)
G Cleveland and M Krashinsky, Childcare Resource and Research Unit; July 2003
This paper examines eight myths often used to argue against public support for early childhood education and care. Its main objective is to respond to these eight myths, to subject them and associated research to critical scrutiny, and to respond in a popular fashion. Research evidence and logic are combined to provide a readable, economically-oriented critique to these frequently heard assertions.

Publicly Funded Child Care - What Does it Mean? (PDF)
Child Care Advocacy Forum; June 2003

Women's Work: Challenging and Changing the World (PDF)
Cindy Wiggins, Canadian Labour Congress; May, 2003
Le travail des femmes: Defiér et changer le monde (PDF)
Cindy Wiggins, Congrés du travail du Canada; Mai 2003

Tell it to Ottawa - The Advocacy Tool Kit
This kit includes practical tips and suggestions for organizing and meeting with elected representatives, Letter Writing, Effective Communications with Public Officials, Working Effectively with the Media and more.
DAWN Ontario, DisAbled Women's Network

Federal Budget 2003 - What does it really mean for licensed child care? (PDF)

A Family Lens: A Tool for Family Advocacy (Canadian Association for Community Living) (PDF)
The Family Lens is a tool to enable families to more effectively and readily participate in the development, implementation and evaluation of policies that affect their lives and those of their family members with intellectual/developmental disabilities.

Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2001: Summary (PDF)
These Briefing Notes from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit summarize "Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2001" (February 2003). This fifth edition presents a pan-Canadian snapshot of child care and early childhood education. It adds cross-Canada provincial/territorial information about regulated child care, maternity and parental leave and relevant demographic information.

Online Advocacy - Mobilize Supporters to Take Action
"An advocacy group trying to achieve its mission today without the Internet is like a carpenter trying to build a house without a hammer."
Vinay Bhagat; November 2002

Diversity or Disparity? Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada
This report, prepared by the ECEC Community Indicators project of Campaign 2000 and its partners in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, raises public awareness about early childhood education and care. The report illustrates that when the focus is on early childhood education, disparity, the less attractive cousin of diversity, is frequently uncovered.

Child Care in the News
National and international child care news items from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit website.

You Bet I Care - Fact Sheet (PDF)
Centre for Families Work and Well-Being

Work Life Compendium 2001 - Executive Summary (PDF)
Centre for Families Work and Well-Being
This includes a wide variety of work life facts and figures.

Child Care in Québec: Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way (PDF)
by Jocelyne Tougas
A paper of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada

This paper describes the major features of Québec’s early childhood care and education initiative and draws out the key elements and experiences that could serve as lessons for child care advocates across the country.

The benefits and costs of good child care
The Economic Rationale for Public Investment in Young Children - A Policy Study
by Gordon Cleveland and Michael Krashinsky, Department of Economics, University of Toronto at Scarborough, March 1998
Published by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, University of Toronto, 1998.

The study looks at a comprehensive public program, providing relatively high quality licensed child care to all children aged two to five years with employed parents, as well as enriched nursery school for children cared primarily by their parents at home. It concludes that for every dollar spent on such program, approximately two dollars worth of benefits are generated for children and their parents....the incremental benefits of the identified changes to childcare arrangements in Canada amount to approximately two dollars for every dollar of cost to the public purse...

In summary good child care matters to children, parents and to society. The benefits of such a program are likely to significantly outweigh the costs, and thus publicly funded child care deserves high priority when decisions on the allocation of scarce public funds are made.

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