Hon. Bill Morneau
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 0A6
To the Honourable Bill Morneau,
The federal government’s long-term funding commitment to early learning and child care announced in 2017 was welcome news. However, the annual allocation over the next eleven years is not enough to solve the child care crisis.
I am writing in support of the budget proposal made by the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada:
1. Replace the current child care spending plan with one that will allow federal, provincial and territorial governments to build a universal, affordable, high-quality, inclusive system for all children and families in Canada over the next ten years.
2. Allocate $1 billion for child care in the 2018-2019 fiscal year and increase that amount each year until public spending on child care reaches at least 1 per cent of GDP, the international benchmark used by the OECD, UNICEF and other international bodies.
The proposed expenditure is affordable, less than what the past Liberal government budgeted in 2005 and significantly less than the annual expenditure of $8 billion recommended in a recent report of the International Monetary Fund.
It’s time for the federal government to take bold and proactive action on child care. It’s time to realize and safeguard the rights of all children to quality early childhood education and child care, wherever they live in Canada and regardless of their family’s economic status.
Your government has promises to keep:
• Women’s equality: quality, affordable and inclusive child care is the ramp to women’s equality and key to productivity and economic growth.
• Human rights: international conventions state that quality, affordable and inclusive child care is essential to uphold the rights of children, the rights of Indigenous peoples and the rights of women.
• Middle class families: the federal government must act to ensure that all families across Canada gain access to high-quality programs.
I urge you to increase federal child care spending in the 2018 federal budget.
c.c.
Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development
Hon. Maryam Monsef, Minister of Status of Women
Hon. Wayne Easter, Chair, House of Commons Finance Committee
