• Number of previous federal governments that have announced a national strategy for child care would be developed, then did no such thing: 3
• Years those announcements were made: 1984, 1986, and 1995
• Number of months since the present government promised it would create a national early learning and child care program: 6 (the announcement was made on June 3, 2004)
• Number of new child care spaces promised by the present government, by 2009: 250,000
• Number of child care spaces that Campaign 2000 estimates are currently needed in Canada: 1.4 million

 

• Amount pledged by the present government to create 250,000 child care spaces by 2009: $5 Billion
• Amount that represents annually: $1 Billion
• Amount that the province of Quebec spent on child care in 2001: $1.1 Billion

 

• Amount that child care experts believe will be necessary to provide the needed early learning and child care spaces at affordable rates: $12 Billion annually
• Percentage of GDP that $12 billion represents: 1%
• Percentage of GDP the European Union suggests governments should spend on early learning and child care: 1%

 

• Percentage of Canadian GDP contributed by mothers with young children: 5%
• Total dollars contributed to GDP by working mothers with young children: $53 Billion

 

• Percentage of household income that an average family in Newfoundland must pay for regulated child care: 14%
• Percentage of household income that an average family in British Columbia must pay for regulated child care: 20%

 

• Estimated amount that work-life conflicts cost Canadian organizations each year in time lost due to work absences: $2.7 Billion
• Ratio of benefits to costs of quality child care, estimated by 1998 Canadian study: 2 to 1

 

• Percentage of children aged 3 to 5 whose mothers work in the paid labour force: more than 70%
• For every 100 Canadian children, number of licensed child care spaces available: 12
• Number of licensed child care spaces available for 100 Canadian children, excluding Quebec: 8

 

• Compared to 12-year-old peers in New Zealand who received top-quality early childhood education, difference in Canadian scores on literacy and numeracy tests: 12 percentage points lower

 

• In a 1982 poll, percentage of Canadians who:
  • felt that working mothers and families should be responsible for child-care facilities: 49%
  • thought that government should share this responsibility: 41%

 

• In a 2003 poll, percentage of Canadians who:
  • agreed that Canada should have a nationally co-ordinated child care plan: 90%
  • greed that there can be a publicly funded child care system that makes quality child care available to all Canadian children: 86%

Canadian Council on Social Development, 190 O'Connor Street, Suite 100, Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2R3