ADVOCACY UPDATE - NOVEMBER 13, 2008
Dear Child Care Colleagues:
We know…
As parents, educators, researchers and activists, we know what hasn’t worked in child care. Outside of Quebec, Canada’s market-based approach relies on groups and individuals to build spaces and it relies on parents to pay most of the operating costs. Canadian governments have failed to provide families with access to quality, affordable child care services. In fact, multiple international studies confirm that Canada has one of the lowest levels of public investment in child care in the developed world.
And, we know what won’t work. Just giving more public money to parents to help them pay for child care does not ensure that quality, affordable services exist. Since 2005, we have listened to and learned from our Australian sisters. In that country, the public funds that the federal government has been providing to subsidize individual parent fees have led to escalating fees and have enriched the corporate child care sector.
Last week, Australia’s largest child care corporation, ABC Developmental Learning Centres PTY LTd. (ABC) went into receivership. ABC currently provides services for over 100,000 Australian children. While the fallout from this development is still unfolding, the Australian government has already provided $22 million to keep centres open until the end of December – this is in addition to the more than $300 million provided annually to ABC for parent fee subsidies.
The man behind ABC’s meteoric growth, Eddy Groves, was once named Australia’s richest man under 40. Yet, now that the corporation he developed is in receivership, ABC staff are not even guaranteed to receive the vacation pay they’ve earned.
The Australian experience confirms that, in Canada, we know what will work. That’s why we advocate for a universal, publicly funded system, with direct funding of existing services that are accountable for quality and affordability. We call for democratic control of our public investment, and we call for expansion in non-profit or public services primarily because they are built on the child care values of sharing, collaboration, equity and mutual respect.
Despite the overwhelming public support for child care across Canada, the lack of progress to date means that our voices are not yet being heard or listened to. That’s another thing we have in common with our Australian sisters, as thoughtfully outlined in the article “Women tolled warning bells but no one wanted to listen.”
Let’s take a few moments to think of the Australian advocates who sounded the warning bells, and of the families and staff impacted by their government’s disastrous public policy. Then, let’s continue our work together to call on our governments to protect Canadian families – from corporatized child care services, and from the impacts of the current global economic crisis - by building publicly-funded, community-owned, quality child care services that support our children and families.
Regards,
Jody Dallaire, Chairperson
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada