Canada does not have a national policy or strategy for child care and early childhood development services. In Canada, regulated child care and most other early childhood services - like health, social services, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education - are under provincial jurisdiction. Each of Canada’s 12 (and with the development of Nunavut in 1999 - 13) jurisdictions has a program of regulated child care (including nursery schools) that legislates requirements for operation of services, defines the operation of services, and provides some funding arrangements. Provincial/territorial governments (with the exception of Prince Edward Island) also provide separate public kindergartens under Ministries of Education; the federal government has historically had no involvement - no funding or policy role - in elementary or secondary education. Other early childhood services like Aboriginal Head Start and Community Action Program for Children are under the aegis of, and funded by, the federal government. The range and quality of services - and families' accessibility to them - delivered through this potpourri of early childhood care and education services varies enormously across Canada.

HISTORICAL ROLE FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

While health, education and social services in Canada are under provincial/territorial jurisdiction, their course has often been influenced by the federal government. The Government of Canada’s role has arisen primarily from its spending power, and has ranged from an early history of molding elementary and secondary education, to a strong principle-setting role in health care, to a funding role, as in post-secondary education.

Historically, although the federal government’s role in regulated child care has mostly been indirect and limited, it has nevertheless had a significant impact. There was organized child care in many of Canada’s provinces as early as the 1920s but the federal government played no role in it until World War II. A 1942 federal order-in-council established the Dominion-Provincial War-time Agreement, the first - and most direct - federal intervention in child care. It offered 50 percent cost-sharing to assist provinces in providing child care for children whose mothers were working in essential war industries. Only Ontario and Québec participated in this agreement. After the war, the federal government withdrew its support and all six of the Québec child care centres, and many of Ontario’s, closed.

The federal government’s second foray into child care began with the introduction of the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP), intended to ameliorate or prevent poverty, in 1966. For the purpose of 50-50 federal/provincial cost-sharing, CAP treated child care like other “welfare services” or “items of assistance”, using two routes to reimburse provincial spending. CAP established federal conditions for cost-sharing, stipulating that federal funds were available only for
needy - or potentially needy - families, and that to be eligible for funding as a welfare service, child care had to be regulated and not-for-profit.

As social services are a provincial responsibility, the provinces were not compelled to participate in CAP. However, the provinces all began to use the child care provisions although it took more than a decade for all to participate. CAP thus began to spur development of child care services throughout Canada, shaping their evolution as a welfare rather than a universal program throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1970s, another impetus for the expansion of non-profit child care services in some provinces were the federal Local Initiatives Projects (LIP). In 1971, parental out-of-pocket child care expenses were allowed as a tax deduction under The Income Tax Act, and maternity benefits were included under The Unemployment Insurance Act. In the 1980s, although there were always difficulties with the limited funding arrangements, the supply of regulated child care services grew dramatically throughout Canada, and most of the provinces developed and refined service delivery, regulation and funding. Between 1984 and 1995, there were three significant attempts to develop a national approach to child care; three successive federal governments announced that a national strategy for child care would be developed. Each of these - the Task Force on Child Care set up by the Trudeau government; the Special Committee on Child Care (Brian Mulroney); and the initiative based on Jean Chrétien’s 1993 Red Book election commitment - was initiated by the federal government, and each recognized the primacy of the provincial role in services like child care. For three different reasons, none of these efforts produced a Canadian child care strategy or program.

In the mid 1990s, the federal government introduced new services for "early childhood development” - Aboriginal Head Start* (a targeted early intervention program) and Community Action Programs for Children (established through bilateral federal/provincial agreements for children-at-risk) - both under the aegis of Health Canada.

* In 1999, the Aboriginal Head Start program established for off-reserve native groups under the aegis of Health Canada was extended to on-reserve First Nations.

In 1995, the federal government also announced the First Nations/Inuit Child Care Initiative to fund and establish child care programs in cooperation with regional First Nations and Inuit groups. This was in addition to existing child care spending by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and was budgeted as part of the $720 million over three years committed by the federal government to child care (but not spent) following the 1993 election.

The 1995 federal budget included a declaration that the Canada Assistance Plan would end a year hence. In 1996, CAP programs as well as health and post secondary education funds were subsumed, with substantial cuts, within the new Canada Health and Social Transfer, a block fund. At the same time, the 1993 federal election commitment to expand child care funding and supply was abandoned. A new program to support research and development projects related to child care, Child Care Visions, was announced in 1995. Administered by Human Resources Development Canada, Child Care Visions continues to be supported by the federal government in 1999.

A NEW FEDERAL ROLE? THE SOCIAL UNION

In the mid 1990s, Canada’s political arrangements (which had historically featured tensions between federal and provincial roles) tilted towards provincial domination, a shift that very much impacts upon the future of care and education/development services for young children. The 1996 federal Throne Speech made a commitment that the [federal] Government will not use its spending power in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction without the consent of a majority of the provinces. This suggested that the approach that had been used to establish Medicare and the Canada Assistance Plan - an approach that was shaped by the offer of a federal funding scheme in which provinces could choose to participate or not - might no longer be possible.

In the mid 1990s, a new federal/provincial initiative arose: a National Children’s Agenda (NCA). The Children’s Agenda fits with the new conception of federal/provincial collaboration on social programs. Ongoing work on the NCA is carried out by a federal/provincial/territorial working group reporting to the (provincial) Council of Ministers on Social Policy Reform and Renewal. The National Children’s Agenda moved onto the public agenda in May, 1999, when a “vision statement” was released for public consultation.

At the same time, the Social Union was formalized when the Social Union Framework Agreement was signed by the federal government and nine provinces (except Québec) in February, 1999. This agreement may provide guidance for what comes next for early childhood services. The Framework Agreement establishes principles for social programs, codifies the rules for their establishment, makes commitments to accountability, transparency and collaboration and, finally, reaffirms that the federal government has a role to play in social programs delivered through services. The Agreement affirms a number of principles pertinent to child care: “equality, individual dignity and responsibility, mutual aid, our responsibilities for each other, promot(ing) equality of opportunity for Canadians, respect(ing) the equality, rights and dignity of all Canadian women and men and their diverse needs, provid(ing) appropriate assistance to those in need, promot(ing) participation of all Canadians in Canada’s social and economic life. Perhaps the most important principle for child care and early childhood services is a commitment to “ensur(ing) access for all Canadians, wherever they live or move in Canada, to essential social programs and services of reasonably comparable quality”.