Most parents of young children need child care services to help them work or study. Yet the licensed child care system has space for less than one in ten children and is generally unaffordable for most parents. Quality, accessibility and affordability vary wildly within and between provinces and territories. While Quebec has a 5-a-day child care system, the rest of the country leaves child care to the family and the market. When and why do governments implement progressive child care policies? The contributors in Changing Child Care address this and other questions, and examine the different child care systems Canadians have adopted.
The history of the five decades of mobilization and policy making in Canada is explored throughout this book. Unlike those who would claim that child care is primarily a private family matter, the authors argue that child care is better understood as a public responsibility and part of the public good.
