A recent story in the Globe and Mail discussed the situation in several Toronto neighbourhoods where day care waiting lists are causing parents to go to extreme measures to ensure a spot for their child. One woman they interviewed actually registered her son on a waiting list more than two years before he starts Kindergarten, and another started putting her child on waiting lists when he was still a newborn. According to the article, part of the situation is the renovation and/or modernization of older homes, and the young children that process brings. Toronto is not equipped to handle these numbers.
So what happens? In some cases the parents beg and plead their way to the front of the line. But for many, less than adequate care is the only course of action. With the waiting list for subsidized child care currently at nearly 9000, many low income families are forced into homecare or other situations.
If the situation sounds vaguely familiar, it is because the same arguments are being made in the US about health care. Those with the financial means (or without but really lucky) get proper care, while others are left to potentially substandard care. In Canada we have a public health care system because the Canadian people believe that suitable health care is a right, not a privilege, something all citizens should be able to expect.
Why then is child care not treated as such? At first glance the glib answer would be that while all people will get sick or will potentially use the public health care system, childless individuals would make no use of such a service. However, that fails to acknowledge that even childless people pay taxes, which are used to fund the education system.
Years ago, the public school system accepted new students as young as four years old in September (as long as they turned five before the end of the year) for Kindergarten. Now, they accept three year olds (under the same caveat) into Junior Kindergarten. Why not extend the funding to cover even younger children? If it is reasonable to expect the tax base to pay for education costs for all children from JK to Grade 12, why not for two year olds? It doesn't necessarily have to happen inside the public school system; the government could establish day care centres around the city.
There are those who will say that the tax burden Canadians pay is already too high, and while that may be true, it is a cost we all have agreed to bear for the sake of a society we can be proud of. We live in a country where everyone has access to proper health care and education. Why is adding child care to that list so problematic?
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