For-profit child care: Past, present and future
by Susan Prentice.
Occasional paper 21,
Childcare Resource and Research Unit, October 2005.
After many years of relative political inattention in Canada, the federal
government has committed to developing a national early learning and child
care program. In 2005, the first beginnings of the national program were
laid down through a $5 billion/five year initiative consisting of bilateral
agreements with provinces and territories.
Until now, there has been no national policy on child care and Canada
has relied on non-profit organizations and privately owned businesses
to provide most of its child care services; in 2004, about 20% of these
were for-profit operations. Historically, federal funding policies and
provincial choices have produced wide differences across the country in
the distribution of non-profit, for-profit and government-operated services.
However, as Canadian child care is now poised for growth, important policy
decisions about how child care services are best delivered will need to
be made.
This paper presents new evidence as well as reviewing existing evidence
that supports reasons to look to the non-profit and public sectors as
the optimum sites for the expected growth of Canadian child care services.
It makes the case that if Canada is to avoid ‘big-box’ child
care (and more for-profit child care generally – both international
and home-grown), then careful attention must be paid to the research and
policy evidence about what happens when public funds and public policy
support for-profit child care.
French version of this paper is available for download only until December
15, 2005.
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