Financing Child Care: Future Arrangements. Report of the Task Force on Child Care: Series 2.

Future arrangements for financing child care in Canada is the subject of the five research studies in this volume. The studies were commissioned as part of an effort to provide detailed analyses of issues of special relevance to child care and parental leave policies and the effects of such issues on the changing Canadian family. Paper 1 provides an historical overview of the evolution of social policy from 1867 to 1967 in four areas: education, health care, maternity leave, and day care, comparing common elements in the program development process. Paper 2 describes the structure of a child care costing model which estimates the costs of the current child care system in Canada, and provides forecasts of costs of a national child care system, given various measures of demand, child/staff ratios, and staff wage rates. Paper 3 examines models of federal-provincial fiscal arrangements in which federal contributions are made to programs under provincial jurisdiction, and proposes options for financing a Canadian child care system, including a conditional transfer, conditional cost-sharing, and combined conditional grant and cost-sharing. Paper 4 describes a job creation model for the child care industry, direct job creation programs, and an industrial assistance program. Paper 5 estimates the cost and impact, over a 10-year period, of a proposal for the federal government to cost-share flat-rate operating grants and start-up grants to licensed, non-profit day care spaces. Revision of the Canada Assistance Plan is proposed. (RH)