Hon. Marty Deacon: Thank you for your breadth and depth in speaking today and for speaking from your heart to a bill that has not been easy.

I do have a question. I was happy to hear that the minister has managed and mitigated the Chief Firearms Office, or CFO, issue. We sat in committee, and we heard about that repeatedly, so I was happy to hear that. It did make me think about something else today, though. You mentioned in your speech that this is part of the solution. This bill is part of the solution. There are other pieces at play and other things we need to continue to work on as Canadians.

My question is this: Do you feel confident with this bill and the types of things that have been committed to being done with regulations and work once this bill is passed? Do you feel confident that those commitments and promises to really refine the work of the bill will happen in the way that we need?

Hon. Marty Deacon: Honourable senators, I rise to speak on this important piece of legislation: Bill C-35. We’ve heard from many of you during this debate, bringing to bear both your experiences and background on why this legislation is so important for those in your communities. Tonight, I’d like to add what this legislation will mean for my Region of Waterloo.

From 2016 to 2021, Waterloo was the sixth-fastest growing large urban centre in Canada. Young families were moving there because of access to the economy in the Golden Horseshoe and a growing job market. I have to say that the Region of Waterloo, with its eight townships, is a mighty fine place to live.

An influx of young families will, of course, bring with it much more demand for early childhood education and child care. As is the case across much of the world, gone are the days when one parent — almost always the father — would earn an income while the other parent stayed at home. Now both parents often have to work. Often, this is out of necessity, but, as we’ve discussed over the course of this debate, this has unlocked untold economic potential for our country, and has allowed women to enter the workforce and pursue a career outside the home.

But this comes at a cost for those who have children and young families. They often have to make a hard choice in how their children will be cared for in those early and formative years.

Consider that, as recently as 2022, families in the Waterloo Region were forced to pay between $9,012 and $23,939 annually for one child to be in full-time licensed child care. And now consider that the most recent census results show that the median after-tax income of households in the Waterloo Region is $81,000. At the median cost of child care that I just referenced, the average family in Waterloo, and many other communities, would have to spend roughly 20% of their household income for a child care spot. With two young children, that’s about 40%.

Families look at these costs and have a stark choice to make. Is it even worth it for both parents to work if one parent is barely covering the costs of child care? If they decide it’s not, it goes without saying that, too often, it is the mother who makes the decision to stay at home. While this is only a temporary arrangement before the children are old enough to attend school, I don’t need to explain to this room — of high-achieving individuals — what even a few years of interrupted professional development means for one’s career. Not only is this a loss to the individual, but to the economy as well.

You’ve heard the statistics: Forcing mothers to stay at home because child care is unaffordable has a negative impact on the economy. We will always respect moms who choose to stay home.

Part of this unaffordability, especially in growing regions like Waterloo, is due to a lack of child care spaces. Costs are high because there are so few spots to go around. Currently in Waterloo, 7,000 children are on the wait-list for child care. Some haven’t even been born yet, but if parents wait, their child will be in school before a spot is available. So this conversation — about whether it’s even worth it for both parents to work — is happening inside thousands of households in my region.

Colleagues, that is why I was so happy when, last year, 98% of Waterloo child care operators opted into the $10-a-day program — when a deal was reached between the federal government and the province as part of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system — and it’s why I was even more thrilled when, just two weeks ago, through this agreement, the provincial government announced they would provide the region with $97 million to help create 3,725 child care spaces over the next three years.

This included an announcement that early child care workers enrolled in the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system will get a 19% pay raise, and they will see their pay increase, on average, from $20 an hour to $23.86 an hour, as of January 1. This is good news.

It’s this latter point, colleagues, that I want to focus on at this moment. For this program to work, we need qualified, motivated staff to work in these centres with our young children. To do so, potential workers need education. They need training. It’s not the kind of vocation that one can take on a whim. There needs to be some stability and the promise that Canadians — who want a career in this field — know these jobs will be there for them once they complete their training.

It’s the kind of stability that this legislation offers. It enshrines into law the federal commitment to early learning and child care that is needed for this system to grow and thrive. Specifically, for those who wish to embark on a rewarding career in early childhood education, clause 7 states:

Federal investments respecting the establishment and maintenance of a Canada-wide early learning and child care system — as well as the efforts to enter into related agreements with the provinces and Indigenous peoples — must be guided by the principles by which early learning and child care programs and services should be accessible, affordable, inclusive and of high quality and must, therefore, aim to

. . . support the provision of high-quality early learning and child care programs and services that foster the social, emotional, physical and cognitive development of young children, including through the recruitment and retention of a qualified and well-supported early childhood education workforce, recognizing that working conditions affect the provision of those programs and services.

Colleagues, I had the special privilege of working in, with and for education for over 35 years. Working first-hand — and sometimes on the classroom floor — with families, child care leaders and early learning leaders, they taught me so much. I had the opportunity to pilot early learning programs, such as Strong Start which helps young learners get a jump on their literacy and numeracy. Before I finish, let me take a moment to take you back a few years.

As I look about the Senate, being a young child, or the parent of a young child, might have been a while ago, and it might have been quite different for most of us. Many of you are grandparents and great-grandparents.

In my education system leadership, I had the opportunity to work with Ms. Mary Lou Mackie. She was an executive superintendent of learning who was passionate and relentless about the conditions for success and our inclusion for all students and their families. She advocated very hard to change our structures to improve early student learning — one example being full-day kindergarten and the Extended Day Program in Ontario.

What is the Extended Day Program, you ask? That is basically where child care comes to the students. Their day is extended in the classroom, and it’s a seamless daycare that comes into the classroom so that there’s less disruption on our students rather than the child care taking place in a separate facility. It was a significant and fabulous change for our young people.

Ms. Mackie, like many of us, was inspired by the late Charles E. Pascal — the prime architect of full-day kindergarten and extended day learning in Ontario. I would like to share a quote with you today. This was said by Pascal while he was the special advisor on early learning to the Premier of Ontario and the executive director of the Atkinson Foundation:

In my view, there can be no better measure of progress of our society, our nation, than how well we support the youngest of our young through a shared and consistent commitment about the needs of all of Canada’s children. Like a teeter totter with a decentralized block of cement dropped on one end, our nation seems up in the air. While we still have some glue left that seems to define what it means to be a Canadian, the obvious binder being universal health care, we need more . . . much more. High quality early childhood education which is a key determinant of health, one that can dramatically reduce health care expenditures, should be the stuff of getting our nation moving to a more cohesive and balanced society.

Charles Pascal passed away earlier this year. If he hadn’t, he would be sitting front row watching this debate. His passionate commitment to building an education system that enshrined high-quality early learning and child care has continued to resonate with many and challenge some. Pascal’s views were not partisan; rather, they reflected deeply held principles, supported time and again by research. He believed that fragmented policies and structures can and do prevent the kind of progress necessary to improve the quality, accessibility and affordability of early learning for children, parents, guardians and governments alike.

Senators, I have seen first-hand how wonderful it is when these things go well. I have also seen the repercussions when they do not. This legislation, in formulating principles that I think tick every box that we need ticked at this moment, will ensure that these early learning and child care programs succeed in every region, in every community, from coast to coast to coast — not just mine.

It’s not merely throwing money at a problem. It’s creating a scaffolding with which early learning and child care can grow and thrive in this country, and not just for those who can afford it but for all Canadians. Thank you, meegwetch.