the first phase
Multilateral and Indigenous ELCC frameworks, the 2021 budget, and the $10-a-day plan
The first phase of system building laid the foundation for the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care $10-a-day plan. Noteworthy developments during the first phase include the Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework (2017), the Indigenous Early Learning and Child Care Framework (2018), the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit frameworks, the 2021 federal budget, and the first Canada-wide provincial/territorial agreements and action plans. During the first phase, parent fee reduction was the first priority.
Before the first phase
Canadian child care has always been a market, not a system: a patchwork, characterized by insufficient services, unaffordable parent fees, a poorly compensated workforce, and weak and intermittent government support. It has received low ratings in international analyses of ELCC.
Fifty years of advocacy
Fifty years of child care advocacy have laid the policy groundwork that can transform the child care market into an equitable, coherent system for all.
The first phase
Measuring matters: Assessing Canada’s progress toward $10-a-day child care for all
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), report, Oct 2023. Canada
ECEC in Canada 2023: The state of Canadian early childhood education and care in 2024
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, report, Aug 2024. Canada
ECEC in Canada 2021: The state of Canadian early childhood education and care in 2022
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, report, Apr 2023. Canada
Federal budget 2021: The child care budget
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, ISSUE file, Apr 2021. Canada
Early learning and child care agreements
Government of Canada, government document, Jul 2020. Canada
Summary of the early learning and child care agreements and first action plans
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, report, Apr 2023. Canada
Is $10 daycare in trouble?
CBC Front Burner, podcast, Feb 2024. Canada
Before the first phase
An analysis of the Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework and the Early Learning and Child Care Bilateral Agreements
Child Care Now, report, Feb 2019. Canada
Innocenti report card 8: The child care transition
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, report, Dec 2008. International
OECD thematic review of Canadian early childhood education and care: Highlights from the recommendations
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, BRIEFing notes, Sep 2004. International
Harper and child care
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), book chapter, Sep 2008. Canada
50 years of advocacy
Universal child care: Is it for real this time?
CBC Front Burner, podcast, Apr 2021. Canada
“This half century of struggle”: A look back at child care advocacy
Active History, article, May 2021. Canada
Rock-a-bye, Brian: The national strategy on child care
McGill-Queen’s University Press, book chapter, Jan 1989. Canada
