Addressing the Supply/Demand Imbalance
The Committee looked at a number of factors contributing to the increase in demand for high quality child care services and programs. While there are many factors influencing the increase in demand, focus was placed on family structures and labour force challenges.
According to Statistics Canada, Canadian families are getting smaller, with an average fertility rate of 1.49 children, which is below replacement value.9 Part of this decline in fertility can be attributed to parents choosing to have children later in life; waiting until after they have completed their education and/or established their careers. Of those women who do have children, many continue to also participate in the paid labour force.10 Women with young children (with youngest child under the age of 6) increased their labour force participation rates from 67% in 1995 to 74% 2005. In 2005, 8 in 10 married women with a child between the ages of 6 and 17 were in the labour force.11
Roles within the family structure are also changing. Whereas traditionally women took maternity and parental leave, now fathers are more likely to also take parental leave. In 2005, 15.4% of new dads received EI parental benefits, up from 2% in 2001. In addition, parents are less likely to rely on extended family to help care for their children. In 2001, 30% of grandparents were in the paid labour force and only 11% of grandparents state that their main activity is homemaker or child care provider.12
There is a growing dependence on other types of child care beyond parental care. The proportion of children aged six months to five years who were in child care increased significantly between 1994/95 and 2000/01. According to Statistics Canada, over 53% of Canadian children were in some form of non-parental child care by 2000/01 and 28% of these children were in a daycare centre. The use of daycare centres, as well as care by a relative, became more popular than they were in 1994/95. At the same time, fewer children were being cared for in their own home or in someone else's home by a person who was not a relative.
Demand for child care is increasing13 from parents but also from employers who are struggling to fill jobs that are vacant due to the increasing competition for skilled labour and the growing labour shortage.
Despite increases in the supply of child care, the demand continues to surpass it. In 2004, there were 745,254 regulated child care spaces across Canada, up 151,824 from 2001 and an increase of 373,741 from 1992. However, this growth has not been consistent across the country. For example, between 2001 and 2004, about 60% of all day care spaces added in Canada were in Quebec. 43% of all Canadian children registered in day care are in Quebec. The share of children in Quebec’s day care centres rose to 52% in 2003, almost double the national average of 28%.14
When demand for high quality child care is greater than supply, several social and economic reactions can occur. For example;
- Reliance on social programs can increase: when people are not able to find child care (even if they want to work, are employable and have a job) they often leave the paid labour force involuntarily. This could jeopardize their future attachment to the labour force, and could increase their dependence on social assistance;15
- Underground economy can thrive: when parents use unregulated care it is often an ‘under the table’ solution where no tax is paid by the provider of care, and as a result, no receipts provided, and parents are unable to claim child care deductions;16
- Absenteeism (due to child care breakdown) and presenteeism (when people are at work but distracted and worried about family members) can increase: when parents use unregulated care they can be distracted at work, worried that their child is in a situation where there is limited or no accountability; unregulated care can also be a precarious solution that breaks down more often than regulated. For example, when a caregiver who is sick, the child care fails and parents cannot work. However, if they have a regulated child care provider, a substitute is often available and there tends to be less disruption for families and employers;17 and,
- Parent dissatisfaction can increase: parents can feel isolated, conflicted, guilty, anxious and stressed.18
9 Statistics Canada Live births, crude birth rate, age-specific and total fertility rates , Canada, provinces and territories, annual CANSIM Table 102-4505 (2004)./
10 The labour force is defined by Statistics Canada as the civilian non-institutional population, 15 years of age and over who, during the Labour Force Survey reference week, were employed or unemployed. Employed persons are those who, during the reference week: (a) did any work at all at a job or business, that is, paid work in the context of an employer-employee relationship, or self-employment. It also includes unpaid family work, which is defined as unpaid work contributing directly to the operation of a farm, business or professional practice owned and operated by a related member of the same household; or (b) had a job but were not at work due to factors such as own illness or disability, personal or family responsibilities, vacation, labour dispute or other reasons (excluding persons on layoff, between casual jobs, and those with a job to start at a future date).
11 Huffman, Jacqueline. (2006). The core-age labour force Perspectives on Labour and Income. Vol. 7, no. 9. Statistics Canada Catalogue no 75-001-XIE. (Accessed November 2006) pp 8.http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/75-001-XIE/75-001-XIE2006109.htm
12 Ibid.
13 Committee members note that there is currently a debate in Canada concerning the accuracy of data regarding child care demand.
14 Bushnik, T. (2006) Child Care in Canada. Statistics Canada. pp. 17
15 Doherty, G., & Friendly, M., Oloman, M. (1998) Women’s Support, Women’s Work: Child Care in an Era of Deficit Reduction, Devolution Downsizing and Deregulation Ottawa: Status of Women Canada’s Policy Research Fund. March 1998, p. 34.
Freiler, C., Stairs, F. & Kitchen, B. with Cerny, J. (2001) Mothers as Earners, Mothers as Careers: Responsibility for Children, Social Policy and the Tax System. Ottawa: Status of Women Canada.
16 Based on statistics provided to the Ministerial Advisory Committee by Finance Canada, only 8 per cent of parents are claiming the full amount of the Child Care Expense Deduction.
17 Duxbury, L. & Higgins, C. (2003) Work-Life Conflict in Canada in the New Millenium: A Status Report: Final Report . Ottawa: Health Communities Division, Health Canada. October 2003, p.xv, xvi, 31-32, 102, 111.
18 Charles Phillipe Rochon (ed.) (2000) Work and Family Provisions in Canadian Collective Agreements , Ottawa: Labour Program, Human Resources Development Canada p. 129.
