Martin, Judith

English

Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

HIGH QUALITY CHILD CARE:A PRE-CONDITION TOEQUALITY OF EMPLOYMENT*Judith MartinSi nous voulons voir regalite dans remploipour les femmes devenir une realite pour lesmeres, un systeme de garderies de hautequalite, et accessible economiquement, est unecondition requise. Cependant, presque rien n'aete fait par les secteurs public et prive pouroffrir un tel systeme d'appui complet pour lafamille canadienne d'aujourd'hui - dont 48%se trouveraient en dessous du niveau de lapauvrete, si un des parents quittait sonemploi.Judith Martin, ancienne presidente duCanadian Daycare Advocacy Association(CDCAA), examine les limites des garderiescomme service sous-subventionne, et dont lesCOlUS sont defrayes par ['usager. EUedemontre le besoin pour des mesures alterna-tives et pour des politiques d'appui aux parentspour faciliter radaptation du lieu de travail auxresponsabilites parentales. EUe decrit lespropositions faites par le CDCAA pour uncontr6le federal (a la place du contr6leprovincial actuel) des garderies et pour lasubvention d'un nouveau systeme degarderies.In 1982, 53% of mothers with one childaged 3 to 5 were in the paid labour force.In 1983, 53% of families with pre-schoolchildren were headed by two wage-earners. These mothers must be able torely on accessible, affordable, high qualitychild care if they are to participate fully inthe paid labour force.Canadians need help. They needpolicies and programs that make it easierto combine the roles of "worker" and"parent." Today's economy (not todefend this economy!) demands twofamily incomes: Statistics Canada esti-mates that 48% of two-income familieswould fall below the poverty line if eitherparent quit work. Despite this, almostnothing has been done to provide supportsystems for the modem Canadian family.In all of Canada, only some 150,000licenced daycare spaces exist. Still less hasbeen done in terms of other parentsupport policy, such as the provision ofdays off to care for sick children.VOLUME 6, NUMBER 4Daycare, a matter of provincial jurisdic-tion in Canada, can be briefly character-ized as a selectively subsidized user-feeservice. Each province and territory(except the NWT) has enabling legislationin respect to standards, monitoring, start-up, and sponsorship. Each jurisdictionalso has some form of subsidy programwhich, in accordance with an income ormeans test, assists selected parents to paytheir children's user-fees.THE USER-FEE APPROACHDaycare has developed as a selectivelysubsidized user-fee service in Canada.This approach finds its roots in antiquatedthinking which perceived child care as awelfare service for destitute workingwomen.Today in all Canada the four commonproblems that plague daycare are:underfunding, which makes it difficult forprograms to provide care that .is of con-sistently high quality; the lack ofavailabilityof licenced spaces; the high cost of daycareto parents; and daycare's present de-pendence on low staff salaries.Each of these problems is linked to ouruse of a selectively subsidized user-feeapproach to this vital human service.When a user-fee approach is used, it ismarket forces that determine the qualityof care, rather than the needs and prefer-ences of parents and children. With themarket's constant pressure to keep costsdown, daycare programs must savewhere they can. Some survive because ofthe low rents of church basements; otherslimit costs by paying minimum wages, orby cutting food or program supplies.Good daycare is expensive! A stable,high quality, universally accessibleprogram cannot be produced within thelimitations of the selectively subsidizeduser-fee system.In 1983-84, Ottawa budgeted as muchfor daycare ($185 million) as did all theprovinces combined ($190 million).Because Ottawa chooses to spend all itsdaycare dollars as income assistance forselect individual purchasers of daycare, itis clear that federal spending plays a signi-ficant role in entrenching the provinces'user-fee approach to daycare.Federal spending on daycare occursthrough three programs: The CanadaAssistance Plan, the Child-Care TaxDeduction, and the Dependent CareAllowance (Canada Employment andImmigration Commission).The Canada Assistance Plan Act: Para-graph (2)(b) of the Canada Assistance Planprovides for Ottawa to reimburse (withconditions) up to 50% of the pro-vince's daycare subsidies for low incomeCanadians, as well as 50% of any grantsthe province makes to centres on behalf oflow income Canadians. In 1983-84 thisprogram cost Canada $75 million.The Child Care Income Tax Deduction:Section 63 of The Income Tax Act allowsfor employed parents who can producereceipts for child care expenses to deductfrom their taxable income up to $2000 perchild or two-thirds of actual earnedincome, up to a maximum of $8000 perfamily. Tax experts estimate that thisprogram will have resulted in a 1983-84public expenditure of $100 million. It is notnecessary to use licenced care in order toclaim this deduction.cnc Dependent Care Allowance: Incomeassistance to low-income purchasers ofchild care who are participants in CEICtraining programs will result in anestimated 1983-84 expenditure of $10million. It is not necessary to use licencedcare in order to receive this assistance.Each of these programs supports theuser-fee approach to daycare. They putdollars in the pockets of select daycareconsumers. CAP assists the poor tocompete in the daycare marketplace. Thisis a form of welfare which rules out manyin need of daycare - such as middle-income families, and mothers who,despite higher "family" incomes, have topay for their children's care out of theirpersonal poverty-level take-home pay.While CAP assists the poor in thedaycare marketplace, the child care taxdeduction favours high-income pur-chasers of child care. According to tax91experts, 50% of the 1983-84 $100 millionprice tag of this program will end upin the pockets of families with annualincomes of more than $45,000. Theproblem with using a tax deductionmechanism to finance daycare goesfar beyond the obvious gross unfairness ofwhere this money now goes. Manywho should claim this deductioncannot - because many babysittersrefuse to give receipts as they intend notto claim their babysitting wages asincome. In 1981, only 5.7% of femaletax-filers made use of the child careexpenses deduction.Since the Canadian Day Care AdvocacyAssociation (CDCAA) has publicizedthe gross unfairness of the child caretax deduction, there have beenrumblings about the advantages offinancing daycare via a child care taxcredit. Although a tax credit - an amountone would subtract from taxes owed -would provide more assistance tolower-income parents, it is merely a morepalatable method of continuing to shoreup Canada's user-fee approach to day-care. The basic problems with the taxapproach to financing daycare persist ifeither the deduction or credit schemeapproach is used, simply because fundingby any type of individual transferprogram shores up the user-fee approachto daycare.DAYCARE CANNOT STAND ALONEDaycare advocates know that anenlightened and flexible response to thecrisis of today's family involves a lot morethan daycare. In fact, many parents havecome to believe that new daycare policymust be supplemented with comprehen-sive parent support policies. By parentsupport policies, I mean policies thatwould assist the workplace to adapt tothe parenting responsibilities of manyworkers. Parents need the right to stayhome when children are sick, the right tobreast-feed at work, the right to substan-tial paid parental leaves, the right to "flex-time" options which accommodate thework of parenting, and the right to shor-ten the workday when children areyoung, as parents in Sweden are now ableto do.NEED FOR FEDERAL LEADERSHIPThe federal government is now takingsome leadership in examining the daycareissue. But it is important that Canadiansappearing before the upcomingParliamentary Task Force do not let thefederal government use the argument thatdaycare is a provincial matter in order toavoid spending more money on this vitalservice.Although the CDCAA supportsprovincial control of daycare, we have putforth three main arguments in our case forfederal leadership. They are:• Responsibility for leadership: Giventhe determining role current federalspending on daycare plays in defin-ing and entrenching the provinces'user-fee approach to daycare, itclearly behooves the senior govern-ment to take initiatives to assist theprovinces to go beyond the user-feesystem.• Constitutional basis for leadership:Canada has many well-establishedprecedents involving the expansionof the federal "spending" role inorder to develop services which fallwithin the "regulatory" sphere ofthe provinces - for example, post-secondary education and healthcare.• Regional disparities: Federalism isintended to provide Canadianswith some measure of "equality ofservices" and "portability ofservices." The following Table de-scribes disparities across Canada inrespect to availability of licenceddaycare. Such disparities also existin the size of user-fee (after subsidy)and qualify of service available.Quite clearly, current federal policydoes not provide for equality of day-care services across the country.Number of licensed day care spaces per 1,000 children under age of six, and labour force participation rate for women withat least one child 3-5 years of age for ten provinces, 1982.N.S. P.E.!. QUE. ONT. MAN. SASK. ALIA. B.C.NFLD. N.B.number of licensed day care spaces per1,000 children under age 6 (1982) 9 36labour force participation rate of womenwith at least one child 3-5 years(Statistics Canada - 1982) 43.9% 42.3%5449.3%(0-5years)4051%4344.4%6659.8%8463.5%3154.8%78 6959.1% 55%CDCAA PROPOSAL: FUNDING FOR ANEW DAYCARE SYSTEMIn order to provide for the developmentof a system of affordable, universallyaccessible high quality child care, theCDCAA proposes that new federal day-care policies based on the following goalsbe developed:• Equality and universality: Allchildren, regardless of the incomelevel of their parents, must haveequal access to high qualityservices, programs, and benefits.• High quality service: Because thequality of nurturing during theearly years of a child's life is a keyfactor in determining the overallquality and character of one's life, itis crucial that daycare be of highquality, in that it should conform tothe standards and expectations ofchild development research.• Availability of service: All Canadianparents ought to have the option ofusing a range of high qualitylicenced child care services. Anyproposals for new daycare policyought to provide for a mechanismensuring the development of newdaycare spaces in Canada.• Building a financial and institutionalinfra-structure across the country: Weneed a federal vision that foresees aCanada dotted with a great varietyof child care centres and child caresupport services. This means thatwe must commit ourselves to fund-ing daycare, not on the basis oftransfer of dollars to individuals,but rather on the basis of policiesthat will develop a range of flexible92 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMMEinstitutions to meet the child careneeds of Canadians.• Public accountability: Public fundsshould be dispersed in a way thatallows for us to measure andaccount for the kind of service taxdollars are used to provide.• Parent-user control: The CDCAAbelieves that, writhin the confinesof provincial regulations, individualdaycare centres should be control-led by parent-users. By this wemean that centres should begoverned by elected boards ofdirectors or other governing bodies,of which at least 51 % are parent-users. (This does not detract fromthe involvement of communityorganizations and non-user profes-sionals.)• Involvement of caregivers in the run-ning of daycare services: Whereverappropriate and desired by care-givers and parents, worker involve-ment should be encouraged in therunning of centres.• Daycare as a non-profit service: TheCDCAA believes Canada shouldevolve towards a system of non-profit daycare.• Decent returns for those involved in thedelivery and provision ofservices: Childcare policy must recognize thevalue and worth, in monetaryterms, of child care workers andproviders.In order to implement these nationalgoals, the CDCAA is proposing a FederalChild Care Financing Act which, over aperiod of 10 years, would phase in newfederal and provincial funding mecha-nisms, so that by 1996 Canada would havein place a system of high quality, flexiblechild care services which would be avail-able to all children. This proposed systemwould also be universally funded, so thatthe parent-user fee would be reduced to aminimal amount (10-15%), as is the case incountries such as Sweden.Clearly, this proposal is both visionaryand practical.This fall is seeing the establishment of aParliamentary Task Force on Child Carewhich is holding public hearings in eachprovince and territory. Participation by allgroups, especially women's groups, isessential. The failure of progressivegroups to speak out at this time will mostlikely result in the further entrenchmentof Canada's user-fee daycare system,which stands as one of the greatestbarriers to equality for women. For moreinformation on how to participate,contact:The Canadian Day CareAdvocacy Association323 Chapel StreetOttawa, Ontario K1N 7Z2(613) 594-3196FURTHER READINGCanadian Day Care Advocacy Asso-ciation. Beginning to Solve Canada's DayCare Crisis: Short-term and Long-termProposals. A brief submitted to theCommission of Inquiry on the Equality ofEmployment, November 1983.Canadian Day Care Advocacy Asso-ciation. New Federal Policy - Fact Sheets onChild Care in Canada. June 1985.*This article first appeared in a differentversion in CUPE Facts, Vol. 7, No. 3 (May-June, 1985).Judith Martin, who holds an M.A. in bothSociology and Community Development, isCo-ordinator of the Community DevelopmentProgram at the Saskatoon Regional Commun-ity College. The past president of the CanadianDay Care Advocacy Association, she is themother of two children, one of whom is cur-rently in daycare.)'/JIllustration by lane NortheyVOLUME 6, NUMBER 4 93Tales of Three MothersMothers have been employed forever, and foreverthey have agonized over what happens to theirchildren when they are not able to care for them.In 1985, mothers continue to agonize. But there isa difference. Today more women are makingconnections - connections between the plight oftheir children and the backwardness of this society.Brenda: With her first-born, a 5lf2-month-old boyin her arms, just dropped in to say that she, a verytraditional woman, had been searching for care forher baby and was totally undone by feelings of hurtand betrayal.Why betrayal? Well, she had really gotten intomothering - did all the good things: quit smokingwhile pregnant, didn't drink, exercised, ate well,breast-fed - did \t all and loved her baby boy."But how," she asked, tears in her eyes, "Howcan I leave him with someone I don't know -someone I got through the classifieds? He can't talk- I don't know what his day will be like - I can't doit, but my leave is up."(In Canada there are licensed day care spaces forabout 10% of children under two years of agewhose parents - or single parents - are in the paidlabour force full-time or more than half-time.)Gloria: A mother of a four-year-old in licensedcare (with a child staff ratio of 9:1) recently boiledover when she thought about her child's needs inlight of her daily experience as an employmentcounsellor."They talk about responsible government.That's a laugh! On one hand, I see my child in needof more attention, more adult contact; and on theother hand, I see thousands of people begging for ajob - with no hope of getting a first job."June: A Toronto nurse, who always thought goodday care was simply a matter of having enoughmoney, recently shared a conversation sheoverheard in the hospital. Apparently, a three-year-old had fallen while in the care of a womanwho was struggling on her own with nine others.This care was cheaper than a licensed centre, andthe mother was overheard to say to her husband:"If you'd stop smoking, we could use the extra $80a month for the centre I want for him."June said it chilled her. Why should the quality ofan innocent child's care depend on whether hisfather smokes or not? She concluded: "We need thecentres, high quality and all- not the money beinggiven out to the parents."NEVER HAD AN ANNIVERSARY(for Marvyne)94You never had an anniversaryto celebrate the salt and sugarof societies' legal ties,no one craves the same diet forever;soup 'n salad, oil & vinegar, sweet and sour,so the menu changesfor yourelationships were always morehonestly negotiatedusing feelings and attractionsnot property and titlesto bind your days with formalityyour heart ignoringpracticalities of proven recipesletting you tastea variety of experimentsyet sometimes the ingredientsburst into mouth-wateringpassion fruit.Bemice LeverRichmond Hill, OntarioCANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME

High Quality Child Care: A pre-condition to Equality of Employment

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High Quality Child Care: A pre-condition to Equality of Employment

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Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)