Thus, women have a powerful stake in child care policy. Canada has no national child care policy and its child care situation has never begun to approach adequacy. In the 1990s, however, federal funding reductions and withdrawal from the social policy field, coupled with provincial downsizing have induced a new child care crisis. National reports, such as that of the National Forum on Health, and national commitments, such as the Child Tax Benefit, plus a variety of international obligations and covenants, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of of Discrimination Against Women and the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women, all need child care in order to be effective. This paper identifies what has been happening in child care over the last decade, describes policy options for the commencement of Canada's long-recommended national child care policy, and suggests that a successful resolution to the child care dilemma would serve as a good test for assessing the effectiveness of the new social union.
Child care is also a major source of employment for women.
According to census data, in 1991 there were 181,830 women providing child care. For mothers, lack of affordable child care may mean having to be out of the work force for several years, or part-time participation only. This results in a reduction of lifetime earnings, lost opportunities for career advancement and smaller pension benefits than would have been the case otherwise. For providers of child care, the reduction in government financial support means job insecurity and deteriorating working conditions. The child care situation has become precarious right across the country as the affordability and availability of regulated child care decreases.