Posted: Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Barbara Byers, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress, has presented signed petitions calling for a national child care system to Jean Crowder, NDP Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Cowichan and child care critic for the official opposition. Signed by hundreds of labour activists at the 2011 Canadian Labour Congress convention in May, the petition calls upon the House of Commons to “legislate the right to universal access to child care, and provide multi-year funding to provincial and territorial governments to build a national system of affordable, high quality, public and not-for-profit early childhood education and care accessible to all children.” It further calls for funding criteria and mechanisms to hold governments accountable to meet particular standards, and acknowledges Quebec's right to develop social programs with adequate compensation from the federal government. Byers says, “Child care is emerging as a key issue for Canada's labour movement. It's not just good for families – it helps grow the economy. Every dollar invested in high quality child care programs increases our GDP by $2.30. It just makes sense.”