When I was watching and listening to these CBC clips on the history of childcare I noticed that from the very beginning of childcare in Canada dating back to WWII there were not enough spaces for the families that were in need of childcare.  I don’t know why I thought that the current state of the childcare crisis was a new problem.  I find it hard to be positive about changes within the field of early childhood education when there seems to have been little to no acknowledgement of a need for change since child care began.  The first clip that we watched was aired in 1966 and now over fifty years later we seem to be in the same spot in terms of the importance of the early childcare field.  The new bursary being offered to early childhood educators in the province of BC is a sign of progress.  This will hopefully create more qualified ECEA’s, and ECE’s in the field which should be the first step in creating more available spaces in centres for families.  It is progress but still seems slow moving.  The fact that in the last sixty years the progress in solving the limited quality childcare spaces is only just in the very beginning stages is staggering.  It seems to be an ongoing fight to get government officials to acknowledge the early childcare educator as valued professionals.

I wonder if Quebec’s five dollar daycare plan, that was described in the CBC clip from 1997, has been improved.  The system that was described seemed like it had many flaws and was not improving the childcare experience on either side.  It did not seem to work for childcare providers because the five dollars a day even when subsidized was not enough to cover their running costs and most were running at a deficit.  Neither did it work for many, many families who were on very long waitlists to get a space within those subsidized centres.  How can we improve upon this model? What is a fair amount for families to pay for quality childcare? What is a fair wage for ECE providers to earn?