The research indicates there is agreement among Canadians on the need for child-care supports, but no strong consensus on what forms those supports should take. They called for a full range of options that would answer parents' needs at any given time in their child's development. Focus groups and roundtables, specially convened to discuss possible policy mixes, took the issue further, actually delving into the specifics. That variety of data allows us to dig beneath the surface and look at issues pertaining to child policy in much greater depth. Among focus groups and roundtable discussions, the most common best policy mix focused on helping parents achieve secure and continuing employment through a combination of enhanced parental leaves and a more comprehensive and accessible system of child care.
Jobs are the best answer to poverty.
Employers should increase their efforts to provide a balance. Both parents in two-parent families need jobs to support their families. When it comes to devising policy that would help parents support and raise their children, participants in the discussion groups agreed that solutions are unlikely to be found quickly or easily through technical fixes or social policy alone. So, participants called for a combination of efforts among government, communities, families and the private sector. A recurring theme was the importance of empowering parents to exercise choice in the context of their family situations, aided by supports that would enable parents to assume more responsibility for their children and engage in more effective childrearing practices.