Canada

Women’s workforce participation has declined over the past year but the federal government’s commitment to big investments in child care aims to reverse that trajectory. We’ve been down this road before – why is Canada-wide child care so difficult to achieve? What’s different this time? What could a system look like and how will it benefit children, parents and the economy? Join Canada Club Toronto on June 15 to hear from our panel of experts as they discuss the benefits, challenges and opportunities of Canada-wide child care and early childhood education. This panel will be hosted by the YMCA of Greater Toronto and feature an introduction from CEO, Medhat Mahdy and will be moderated by Michelle Eaton, VP of Public Affairs at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and will include:

• Dr. Emis Akbari - Professor and Program Coordinator, the School of Early Childhood, George Brown College
• Dr. Kate Bezanson - Associate Dean of Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Sociology, Brock University
• Jean François Perrault - Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist, Scotiabank
• Armine Yalnizyan - Atkinson Foundation’s Fellow on the Future of Worker

You will receive the access link on the morning of the event.

Canadian governments, at federal and provincial levels, have shown increasing attention to the importance of child care, in particular as a means to increase parents' labour force participation and enhance children's development. The Survey on Early Learning and Child Care Arrangements (SELCCA) provides a current snapshot of early child care use in Canada, and can be used to better understand the reasons why families choose to use or not use different types of child care arrangements. This presentation explores findings from the 2020 SELCCA in order to demonstrate use of child care, types of arrangements used by parents, reasons for using and not using care, and difficulties finding child care. Results will also be compared to the 2019 SELCCA to explore changes that have occurred during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Register for the English webinar Tuesday, June 22, 2021, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, Eastern Time

Register for the French webinar Wednesday, June 23, 2021, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, Eastern Time

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred critical and much needed attention to childcare services as well as to wider sets of policies that address people’s paid work and unpaid care work. This panel explores three intra-connected critical pillars of Canada’s (federal, provincial, territorial) social policy architectures; childcare services, parental leave, and employment policies. The panel examines these in the context of COVID-19 and its long-term impacts on the lives of families and parents. They draw on research and analysis, including work-in-progress, that has been taken on, partly or wholly in response to the pandemic. They also highlight key issues that need to be considered in research, advocacy and policy development as we look ahead to the policy supports that families will need in order to live equitable, flourishing, and sustainable lives.

Chair

• Andrea Doucet, Brock University

Panelists