Daycare costs, affordability vary widely across the country: new study

If you pay for daycare in Toronto, you’re getting the short end of the stick.

A new report, published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, examined the average infant, toddler and preschooler child care fees in the country’s biggest cities.

What they found is that, for each category, the costs vary significantly depending on where you live. Median fees range from $1,676 per child per month in Toronto to just $152 per month in Quebec — thanks, of course, to that province’s $7/day program.

The report’s authors also created an affordability index — looking at daycare fees as a percentage of earnings in a given city.

"Brampton is the least affordable city with child care consuming 36 per cent of a woman’s pre-tax income," notes the report.

"Put another way, an average woman in Brampton can expect to work for over four months of the year just to pay for child care that year.

"The most affordable city for child care is Gatineau where child care only consumes 4 per cent of a woman’s income. In other words, after working for two weeks, a woman’s salary in Gatineau will have already paid for a year’s worth of child care."

The study notes that the fees are primarily a function of provincial policies — specifically licensing requirements and policy directives regarding staff-to child ratios and the qualification requirements of early childhood educators.

But the authors’ bottom line is that Canadian governments need to more money on childcare.

"Despite the high concentration of mothers who work, all reports show
that Canada is a very low spender on early childhood education and care (ECEC) compared to other OECD countries,” the report notes.

"Canada’s public spending on ECEC is somewhat between 0.2 per cent and 0.34 per cent of GDP — extremely low even in the best case. At best, Canada spends half the OECD average and one third of the recommended minimum one percent of GDP for children 0–5."

'Spend more' was the message from the federal NDP, last month, when they unveiled a $5 billion daycare program aimed to create 1 million new daycare spaces across the country.

"In 2014, it’s unacceptable that many families have to pay more for child care than they do for rent. The NDP is determined to propose a practical plan to address the needs of parents across Canada," party leader Thomas Mulcair said in a statement.

"The federal government has to be an active partner with provinces in order to help parents."

The Harper Conservatives countered the NDP policy — just two weeks later — with a suite of childcare policies focused on parental choice.

The government promised to expand their universal childcare benefit: parents with children six and under will now receive $1,920 per year for each child. Parents with children over the age of 6 will now receive $720 a year. They’ve also enhanced their child care expense deduction, allowing families to save on their income taxes.

With childcare bills of $12,000 plus in most of Canada’s big cities, it’s no wonder the issue has become a focus of the major political parties.

As of now, it appears that childcare will be a ballot box issue in 2015.

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