44th Parl. 1st Sess.
January 31, 2023 10:00AM
Mr. Speaker, it is so nice to be back in the House with friends and colleagues. I would like to take advantage of the very end of the statute of limitations to wish everyone a very happy new year. I particularly wish the residents of Hamilton Mountain a happy new year.
It was so great to be back in the riding over the holidays, but I am thrilled to be back in the House today to stand to speak in support of Bill C-35, which we hope will become the Canada early learning and child care act. This bill would enshrine into law the Government of Canada’s commitment to working with provinces, territories and indigenous peoples to build a Canada-wide system of early learning and child care, a system that would help ensure families in my riding of Hamilton Mountain, and families across Canada, can access high-quality, affordable and inclusive early learning and child care, no matter where they live.
In my riding of Hamilton Mountain we have many early learning and child care centres that provide access to high-quality early learning, such as Today’s Family, YMCA, YWCA Hamilton, and Umbrella Family and Child Centres, and I have been proud to tour some of those facilities with the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development. Centres like these not only benefit our children, but they also benefit parents who can afford to go to work knowing their children are being cared for and educated.
As a mother, I wholeheartedly agree with all of those who say that child care is not a luxury. It is a necessity. My friend and constituent Ala Mohamed is a child care worker at YWCA Hamilton. Her heart has been melting with joy since just before Christmas, when a barrage of parents started calling because they could not believe the child care refunds they were getting, just in time and when they needed them.
There were parents who could suddenly afford Christmas gifts and stop struggling to meet their mortgage payments, mothers who could finally go to work to help support their families and parents who could start planning higher education for their children. Ala said that parents are happy that child care costs dropped, while the quality of that child care has been enhanced because of renewed support for registered early childhood educators.
We believe parents should have the opportunity to build both a healthy family and a healthy career, and that children deserve the best possible start in life. As part of budget 2021, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment designed to give them that start, an investment of up to $30 billion over five years to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system. Combined with previous investments announced since 2015, a minimum of $9.2 billion per year, ongoing, will be invested in child care, including indigenous early learning and child care, starting in 2025.
We are already seeing results well ahead of schedule. Women’s participation in the workforce in Canada is near an all-time high of almost 85%. The Bank of Canada credits the early learning and child care plan, saying “This increase in the participation rate of prime-age women has expanded the labour force by almost 100,000 people, helping ease firms' labour shortages and hiring challenges.” This means mothers are already finding they can afford the choice to find full-time work.
In November of last year, Nunavut became the first jurisdiction in Canada to reduce fees for regulated child care to $10-a-day under the Canada-wide system, joining Yukon and Quebec in delivering an affordable child care system to its residents, and doing so more than three years ahead of schedule. This is a tremendous achievement, one that will make life more affordable for families that use regulated child care in the territory, and while families in Nunavut are enjoying the benefits of this system to their fullest, they are not alone.
Every other province and territory that has not yet achieved $10-a-day care has announced fee reductions to parents under the Canada-wide system. This is a first and critical step toward our ultimate goal, which is regulated child care that costs an average of $10 a day across Canada by March 2026.
The Canada-wide early learning and child care system is becoming a reality. The legislative measure that is before us today will strengthen and protect this system so that it remains a reality for future generations.
The Canada-wide early learning and child care system is becoming a reality, and the legislation we are considering today would help strengthen and protect that system to ensure it is a reality for generations to come.
Here are some of what this legislation would work to achieve. It would provide support for the continued implementation of an affordable Canada-wide early learning and child care system by enshrining the vision, the guiding principles, and a commitment to long-term funding. It would enhance transparency and accountability by requiring the Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development to report annually to the public on progress being made in the system. It would also establish in law the national advisory council that would provide third-party expert advice on issues and challenges facing the ELCC sector in Canada.
This legislation is critical. As we build on the early successes of the Canada-wide agreements, we want to set the foundations for success over the long term. We are doing this by enshrining into law the federal government’s commitment to strengthening and protecting this Canada-wide system.
This bill is the result of collaborative efforts between the Government of Canada and its partners and stakeholders.
Bill C-35 builds on the collaborative work we have undertaken with provinces, territories and indigenous peoples from coast to coast to coast. This is not a top-down process. It is not imposing anything. It is driven by shared interest and close partnerships and collaboration.
This legislation respects provincial and territorial jurisdiction and the vision and principles of both the 2017 multilateral early learning and child care framework developed with provinces and territories, as well as the co-developed indigenous early learning and child care framework, which was jointly released and endorsed in 2018 with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Métis National Council.
By enshrining these principles and vision into federal law, we are building not only stability into the child care system, but also predictability and commitment. We want provinces, territories and indigenous peoples to know that the federal government is in this for the long term, that our commitment to ensuring access to affordable, high-quality and inclusive early learning and child care from coast to coast to coast is one they can count on, one that will endure.
That is why I am supporting Bill C-35, and I would urge the Conservatives to do the same.
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Mr. Speaker, what I know and have heard from constituents in the riding of Hamilton Mountain is that this child care system is working. Parents are getting the relief they need and the child care system is getting better for them.
I have heard directly from my constituents that this is something parents needed and that childhood educators have been clamouring for. They are so grateful to this government for creating a system so parents across this country, not just the parents in Quebec, have access to an equitable, affordable, high-quality child care system.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Drummond for the question. I really enjoy working with him at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.
Here in Canada we are very proud of Quebec and the system that was created there. The entire country has learned from Quebec's system, which respects provincial and territorial jurisdictions.
It has the parameters to be able to continue to grow and to enshrine the principles while still respecting the jurisdiction of provinces and territories and to learn from them, as we have already heard this morning. We will continue to learn from the Quebec system and continue to improve.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that I have enormous respect for the member for Nunavut, and I absolutely appreciate her intervention. I would say that the government has every intention of getting this legislation right, and I would invite any input she has into helping alleviate that administrative burden.
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