Universal Childcare In Canada

Brandi Holden

WOMN 1600

Argument Note #3

Friday, July 24th, 2012

Summary

“Why Universal Childcare?” is a great title for an article such as this one. The question enters the reader into a vast pool of potential answers to the question. First off, what does universal childcare mean? For me, I believe that universal childcare means all around childcare, not only in a general sense, but all over the map childcare. Most people don’t see a problem with childcare in Canada, but it seems as if there are some issues pertaining to the system of childcare in Canada. “In a country of close to five million children of 0-12 years of age, Canada now has fewer than 900,000 regulated childcare spaces. The percentage
Without funding, the programs usually suffer and do not meet the maximum amount of care and quality that it should be able to meet. Along with this, the childhood educators/childcare providers may be undertrained. “The quality of the care is frequently troubling: limited public financing forces programs to operate as cheaply as possible, and requirements for programs are low. The early childhood educators who provide the care are underpaid and often undertrained. Overall, Canada’s early childhood education and care situation suffers from chronic neglect.” (Prentice, 2009, p.1). Another reason why this situation may come across as shocking to most people, is because Canada is an extremely wealthy country, so you could expect Canada to have a very strong childcare programs. Childcare programs are always changing, they have changed drastically in the last few years, most programs are now looking for ways to interpret ways of learning and more social support for children. “ECEC (Early Childcare Education and Care) is about an integrated and coherent approach to policy. It is about providing care that includes all children and all
“The origins of childcare were in philanthropy and benevolence. From the mid- nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, most of what we know today as childcare programs were provided by educational, philanthropic, or religious organizations, often led by prominent women.” (Prentice, 2009, p.71). Women were the ones who normally ran the childcare centers, but as we see today, women are entering the paid workforce. The governments did not play a role back then, hence they did not play a part in the responsibility. Today, we count on the government to help fund and organize these programs, which is still a developing task. After World War II, the federal government stopped funding childcare. This lead out into outbursts which lead to : The Day of Nurseries Act, which became Canada’s first provincial legislation. This lead to the number of childcare programs expanding. We saw a leading change in childcare happen in 2006, when the Harper Conservatives made childcare one of their five leading promises. “In the 2006 election the Harper Conservatives made childcare one of their five leading promises”. (Prentice, 2009, p.84.). Unfortunately,