N.B. Needs To Take Advantage Of Ottawa’s $30-Billion Childcare Program
Katie Davey works on the integration of economic and social policy. She is a policy lead at Public Policy Forum and founder of Femme Wonk.
Four years ago, the 10-year education plan was launched in New Brunswick. A child born around the same time would have cost their parents around $35,000 in child care so far.
Similarly, a person could have received a full undergraduate degree from New Brunswick’s most expensive university, Mount Allison University for about the same amount. At an average of about $700 a month in the three major New Brunswick cities, access to child care is not a Toronto issue. It is a New Brunswick issue.
Also in 2017, the provincial and federal government signed a bilateral agreement on early learning and child care (ELCC) to the tune of $30-million. According to the provincial government website, “By 2030, New Brunswick’s early learning and child care system will be transformed to offer higher quality services that are universally accessible and affordable to all families and children through a robust public policy framework, making New Brunswick an ideal place to raise a family.”
The federal government may have just helped make that vision more achievable. On April 19, 2021, the federal government included a $30-billion commitment to childcare over five years. For many advocates, especially those who have tracked progress on this issue since universal child care was first called for over 50 years ago in the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, this was indeed a historic investment.
However, some 150 years ago, a deal of confederation was struck and provinces gained the jurisdiction of education, and by extension, child care. So in order for the federal government to actually spend $30-billion on child care, the federal government will have to cooperate with the provinces – including New Brunswick, a province that recently overhauled its early learning and child care system to one that favours high-quality care and a sliding scale cost structure.
So, what will the federal commitment to childcare mean for New Brunswick? It depends on Blaine Higgs’ negotiating skills.
The two main questions to consider about the $30-billion federal commitment are: 1. Why should New Brunswick care? 2. How would this plan interact with New Brunswick’s existing and recently renewed child care system?
The answer to the first is simple: child care is economic policy – the federal budget attested that an investment like this in child care would add 1.2 percent to GDP – economists like Jim Stanford suggest it may be as much as 4 times that.
At the same time, before Quebec implemented its $5 a day childcare program two decades ago, women’s economic participation in the Quebec economy was 4 percent below the national average. It is now 4 percent above and one of the highest in the world.
At a time when New Brunswick is concerned with labour shortages, freeing up people who are already in New Brunswick is just a smart policy decision.
If that wasn’t argument enough, New Brunswick has the second oldest average population in the country – as such, an obvious emphasis has been put on population growth (immigration, repatriation, and keeping people here). Attracting and retaining young families should be similarly at the top of the list and programs that make child care more accessible support that.
This economic argument sits beside the long-term competitive advantage of giving more kids access to quality early learning, especially at a time when our neighbours, namely Nova Scotia are implementing universal pre-k programs.
We should want all kids here in New Brunswick to get their best start – and evidence shows we need it; according to the baseline set in the 10-year education plan, only 76.9 percent of grade 2 students in New Brunswick achieve sufficient reading test scores. If children had wider access to quality child care from the start, they will be set up for longer-term success which means an investment in child care now is an investment in longer-term competitiveness and quality of life.
The economic evidence is clear so while others may question why we should even attempt to bargain with Ottawa on their plan, what we really should be asking is how might Blaine Higgs negotiate a bilateral arrangement that works for New Brunswick.
Although this federal commitment is more in line with the so-called Quebec Model, New Brunswick began leading the way on a sliding scale funding model in 2017. What that means is for families with a household income of $37,500, their child care is free at a designated early learning centre. The first thing we should be doing when talking to Ottawa is ensuring that these free spaces remain.
Second, Higgs should advocate strongly for the expansion of designated centers of excellence and the increase of child care spaces in the province: those thinking about having kids right now know they’ll have to put their name on a waitlist as soon as they become pregnant. To staff these expanded spaces, New Brunswick should be asking Ottawa to support training and upskilling for both those who are currently working in the system and those who want to enter it. A comprehensive workforce development strategy is needed to expand a high-quality workforce and reduce the levels of high turnover.
To address turnover, the child care sector is clear in New Brunswick and across the country – compensation (wages and benefit packages) and working conditions need to be improved. New Brunswick should ask Ottawa to support wage increases in a long-term sustainable way. New Brunswick already tops up the wages of ECEs by between 30-50 percent. If Ottawa is serious about addressing the challenges within the system, wages need to be on the table.
Although child care remains strongly within provincial jurisdiction, Blaine Higgs needs to take advantage of the dollars on the table. Any bilateral agreement should protect the bright spots of the New Brunswick system while also making child care more accessible for parents, and a more desirable sector to work in.
When these things are achieved, child care will contribute meaningfully to economic and population growth within New Brunswick – two key priorities of the provincial government. These are not 50-cent dollars – the federal government has not asked the province to match funds. This is a deal Blaine Higgs should do. New Brunswick families will be better for it.
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