Childcarepolicy.net

Enfin, en francais….le rapport final. Study recommends provision of fully publicly-funded child care for children 30 months to kindergarten as the next step forward to dramatically improve child care affordability in Ontario.

I just had a piece published in Policy Options/Options Politiques, from the Institute for Research in Public Policy in Montreal. It’s titled “Child Care in the Ontario Election“. Have a look! No matter who wins the election, this debate about what constitutes good child care policy in Ontario is a really important one.

Here’s the PDF from my presentation to the Atkinson Centre Early Years Task Force from this morning May 9th. This is a crucial election for families who care about child care and the different policy approaches to child care funding would have VERY different effects. Presentation at OISE on Affordable for All report

I’m a collaborating member of a research team in Quebec called “Equipe de Recherche Qualite des Contextes Educatifs de La Petite Enfance”. Nathalie Bigras, an excellent researcher in early childhood education issues from UQAM, is the leading member of this team. Their recent newsletter contains a useful clickable list of recent press coverage and other resources

I wrote this response to an opinion piece by Andrea Mrozek published by CBC News Opinion.  My response didn’t get published.  Here’s a flavour: “Child care in Quebec is very affordable, and is very popular with parents.  Its affordability has had dramatic positive impacts on women’s employment, family incomes, and child poverty.  Reputable economists claim that these effects are so positive that funding child care affordability can completely or nearly completely pay for itself.  However, as Ontario develops its child care policies, it is important to imitate Quebec’s successes and avoid Quebec’s mistakes.” Response to Mrozek

My article in The Conversation Canada (sign up here to get this digital publication –  https://theconversation.com/sign_up) argues that providing free child care for Ontario’s preschool children will avoid many of the problems Quebec had in expanding its child care system.   https://theconversation.com/why-free-preschool-makes-the-most-sense-for-families-94716

The Toronto Star published my op-ed today.  See more below: What will Ontario PC leader Doug Ford do for children and families in this election? The Liberals and the NDP have set a high bar with their child care funding announcements – free preschool child care with the Liberals and fees based on income averaging $12 a day with the NDP.

Parisa Mahboubi complains (Globe and Mail, April 11th) about Ontario’s new plan to provide free preschool child care, but I think she should be cheering instead.