Excerpts from the brief:
Child Care supports the employability of parents, particularly mothers, immediately and on an ongoing basis. In the immediate term, child care is a tremendous support to families because it allows parents, particularly women, to increase their labour force attachment. Canada's productivity relies on working mothers with young children, who contribute $53 billion annually to Canada's GDP. That reliance is only increasing due to widely predicted shortages of skilled labour. Yet Canada has not built a network of income supports and public services, such as quality affordable child care, to broadly facilitate women's economic and social contribution. The National Child Care Study (1988) confirmed that it is overwhelmingly mothers who make child care arrangements and scramble when they fall apart. Labour market surveys find that mothers are most likely to refuse work, promotions or transfers because of family responsibilities.