Piège parental : Prestations de garde d'enfants dans les grandes villes du Canada

www.policyalternatives.ca RESEARCH ANALYSIS SOLUTIONS

The Parent Trap

Child Care Fees in Canada’s Big Cities

David Macdonald and Martha Friendly

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

November 2014

About the authors

David Macdonald is a Senior Economist with the

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Martha Friendly is the founder and Executive Director

of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit.

She is a research associate at the Canadian Centre

for Policy Alternatives.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the following people for their

help in compiling data and conducting the phone

survey for this report: Kayle Hatt, Hadrian Mertins-

Kirkwood, Hayley Koeslag and Helena Towle. They

also thank the municipal and provincial employees

who compiled and made available the administrative

data upon which much of this report is based.

ISBN 978-1-77125-157-0

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5 The Parent Trap

5 Executive Summary

6 Introduction

8 Background

9 The Results: Infant Full-Day Fees

11 The Results: Toddler Full-Day Fees

12 The Results: Preschooler Full-Day Fees

13 Ranges of Fees

14 Child Care Affordability Index

16 What Determines Parent Fees?

20 Conclusion

22 Appendix A

23 Appendix B

24 Appendix C

27 Appendix D

29 Notes

The Parent Trap: Child Care Fees in Canada’s Big Cities 5

The Parent Trap

Child Care Fees in Canada’s Big Cities

Executive Summary

While Canada spends less on early childhood education and care than most

OECD countries, Canadian parents are among the most likely to be employed.

As Canadian parents are working parents, child care fees can play a major role

in decision-making and labour force participation, particularly for women.

This study examines, for the first time, median unsubsidized child care

fees in Canada’s big cities for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. It also develops

an affordability index that compares child care fees to women’s income.

Infant spaces (<1.5 years) are the hardest to find and the most expensive.

Torontonians pay the most for infant child care at $1,676 a month. Parents

in St. Johns pay the second most at $1,394 a month. The lowest fees

are found in the Quebec cities of Gatineau, Laval, Montreal, Longueuil and

Quebec City, where infant care costs $152 a month thanks to Quebec’s $7-aday

child care policy (increased to $7.30-a-day in October 2014). The secondlowest

infant fees are found in Winnipeg ($651 a month) where a provincial

fee cap is also in place.

There are roughly twice as many toddler spaces (1.5–3 years) as infant

spaces and fees are lower. Toronto has the highest toddler fees at $1,324 a

month. Vancouver, Burnaby, London, Brampton and Mississauga all have

median toddler fees over $1,000 a month. Again, the least expensive tod6

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

dler spaces are in the Quebec cities already mentioned, where it is also $152

a month ($7 a day), followed by Winnipeg at $451 a month.

There are many more preschooler spaces (3–5 years) than toddler spaces

and fees are the lowest of the three age categories. Toronto again has the

highest median

...