Child Care Canada – Looking at 2007

According to the Trends & Analysis 2007: Early childhood education and care in Canada 2006 from the Child Care Resource and Research Unit these are the major trends to be noted:

Child populations in Canada are shrinking.

A solid majority of Canadian children have a mother working outside the home.

Access to regulated child care has improved little in the past two years with limited impact on the sizeable gap between need and provision.

Quality has been a perpetual concern in Canadian child care. Current data show no reason to be optimistic that there have been quality improvements in the last two years.

Following federal and provincial/territorial improvements in maternity/parental leaves and benefits beginning in 2001, more parents have been taking longer parental leaves.

The growing community of Abbotsford, British Columbia is facing significant challenges related to child care.  According to a recent article in the Abbotsford Times there are nearly 7000 children under five who need child care but only 1175 licensed child care spaces available.