Bill No. 56 - Affordable Child Care Accountability Act. - 2nd Reading

CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : I can't resist just saying a few words, having spent a great deal of the last four years advocating for formal child care. I have now left that file in the able hands of my colleague, the member for Halifax Needham.

I do want to say at this moment, as we are still in the throes of COVID-19, as we think about things like an economic recovery, and we'll debate this, I think, on the next bill around gender equity and gender-based analyses, but this is something whose time has long since come. In Dartmouth South, just in the last year, we lost two child care centres. In my immediate neighbourhood, which will seem very small geographically to those of you probably in more spread-out ridings, but we've lost two neighbourhood daycares. There is no regulated daycare in downtown Dartmouth right now. That is because of the lack of stable funding.

It's because, obviously, of a lot of things: It has to do with housing, it has to do with the real estate market, it has to do with COVID, but it has to do with the lack of stable funding. That's something we've advocated for, for a long time. I think it's also worth noting that Quebec did this a long time ago. The notion that the federal government tried it in 2006 and then we never could have done it again until the federal government saved us, now I think is a little bit simplistic. We have been pushing for a provincial solution which, quite frankly, I think, should have come a long time ago.

We know that there was action taken on this file and we appreciate that action, but the reality was, and until we see more movement still is, it has been incredibly difficult for child care centres to operate, and it has been incredibly difficult for the folks who staff those centres to have a decent life. Most of them make far below a living wage. There is a wage floor that has helped somewhat, but there's so much work to be done there. We saw in the government platform during the election this idea of a pension for doctors. We've been asking for a pension for early childhood educators for years.

While we know that there are issues with physician recruitment, quite frankly, one of the top things I hear from early childhood educators when I speak to them is if I stay in this job, I'm going to retire in poverty. That's how low the wages are. For me - we're all sharing our personal experiences a little bit - I had three kids in 18 months. I know, people always try to do math when I say that, but true story, all mine.

I paid for those three kids to be in daycare and it was punishing. It was more than my mortgage by a long shot, and we've had this conversation on the floor of this House, but can you afford to work? Does it make sense for you to work? That question became so offensive to me, because the answer, quite frankly, is no, but I did it anyway because it was important to me.

As my colleague for Clayton Park West has pointed out, not all women have that agency. Not all women can make that decision. That decision is made easier when as government we create the framework that allow those choices to be made by women, by families. I think it is incredibly important that we continue on this path, but I don't want to lose the thread as we talk about this of how we move forward out of COVID.

Not only is this an important program and priority generally, but it is imperative right now. We've seen women's labour force participation drop. It has not recovered at the same pace as men's, and this is a massive issue. I was listening to the radio, I think this morning or yesterday, and the former CEO of Pepsi was on. They said to her, how did you make it this far? How can we make sure that more women break this corporate glass ceiling? One of the first things she said was child care, which if you haven't been thinking about these issues might seem like it comes out of left field a little bit, but it doesn't, it really doesn't.

I would urge this government to do everything they can, not only to honour this agreement but to acknowledge the provincial responsibility, frankly ‑ an agency that we have in going even further and in making sure that we move towards not only ensuring that everyone has quality, safe, accessible, affordable child care but that the workers in those child care centres are paid a living wage, that they don't retire in poverty. That is part of a piece of understanding that the economy of the future, I think - and I am not the only one who thinks it - is really the caring economy, which is part of the green economy. Those are the CCAs and the ECEs and the folks who are taking care of people, because that is a really difficult thing to automate. It really is. I am forever quoting the economist Armine Yalnizyan in this Chamber, but these are the new middle-class jobs.

This is really the backbone of our economy going forward, and I hope that the government takes all of that into account. I hope that they don't ‑ I'm glad to see that we are moving past some partisan divisions in terms of this government not aligning themselves with their federal ‑ I don't know what they would call them ‑ third cousins. I don't know what they are. (Interruption) Whatever it is, those people with a similar name in the federal Parliament.

You know, I have taken a very strong position against this approach. I am glad that this government has not followed suit and I hope that it will remain that way.

I hope that these other issues that I have pointed to are also taken into account, because not only is this good and laudable and important, but it is absolutely vital if we want to move forward as a province, if we want to thrive, and if we want to come out the other side of this pandemic with any semblance of equity ‑ sort of gender equity, in particular, in the workforce. (Applause)