Workplace Childcare Edges Into Canada

16 December 2007 - 12:00pm

Integrating childcare facilities with the workplace is experiencing a slow but steady start in Canada, where some activists are trying to convince employers of the real economic benefits of bringing the kids to work.

Sponsored Advertisement
Advertise on Planetizen

"Workplace childcare is relatively new to Canada, but it's poised to revolutionize how the service is delivered. This year, both the B.C. and federal governments changed laws to make workplace daycares more attractive to businesses. The City of Vancouver will consider a report in the spring of 2008 that could facilitate on-site daycare in office buildings. However, some child-care lobbyists–who have been fighting for a taxpayer-funded system for three decades–hate the idea."

"On average, a family ordinarily pays $11,460 per year per toddler for a licensed daycare, staffed by early childhood educators, according to a 2007 fee survey conducted by the Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre. (That's equivalent to two-and-a-half years' tuition in an undergraduate program at UBC.)"

Source: Georgia Straight, December 13, 2007