Canada is often heralded as a great country. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Quality of Life Index ranked us No. 2 in 2011, and then in 2013 the Better Life Index ranked us at No. 3.
But what does such a measure really say about a place and its society? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an anti-Nazi dissident and pastor, said: “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children,” which seems to me to be a good measure for determining a quality-of-life index.
What do we do for children in Canada? Most of us are familiar with much of the rhetoric — from politicians to the person next door — about the importance and preciousness of children, including child safety, play, sport, education, pastoral care, all of which are captured in the phrase “Children are the future.”
Yet there seems to be a disconnect between the story we tell ourselves and the story the actual evidence presents.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the federal government forging an all-party pledge to eradicate child poverty by 2000. Twenty-five years ago, in 1989, child poverty was just above 13 per cent.
We marched past 2000 and into 2014, and the rate is now above 14 per cent and set to keep rolling toward 15 per cent. These data do not include poverty levels of children living on reserves; Ottawa does not provide that information.
In 2004, the OECD’s note on Canada assessing early learning and care determined that, with the exception of Quebec, early learning and care consisted of “a patchwork of fragmented services … without a focused child development and education role.”
In 2008, the UNICEF Child Care Transition Report gave Canada one on a 10-point scale on the benchmarks used to assess a country’s provision of early learning and care basics. Effectively, it ranked us dead last, tied with Ireland among 25 countries. Although there has been work to improve early learning and care in some jurisdictions across Canada, not much has changed since the 2004 report.
If early learning and care aren’t made a priority, we won’t soon be seeing much improvement.
Recall the hand-wringing and media buzz in April 2013 when UNICEF released the Child Well-Being in Rich Countries report, which ranked Canada at 17 out of 29 participating nations. Perhaps it was soon forgotten, after the pundits and experts explained what the findings really meant and that Canada wasn’t really so bad.
Looking at data from Statistics Canada, the OECD, UNICEF and other research work, we would have to conclude that Canadians really don’t like children.
Why aren’t we doing something to change and improve things for children? There is plenty of research evidence showing that for every tax dollar spent on quality developmental early learning and care, the return rate is between $7 and $16 through higher levels of education completion rates, acquiring better jobs, better relationships, reduced crime rates, better parenting and lower health-care needs — all of which reduce poverty levels.
Currently, the federal government’s support for child care is through the Universal Child Care Benefit, which would be laughable if it were not so pitiful. No one can find basic adequate care for $100 month, which is taxable.
With this kind of evidence, we should be clamouring for universal early learning and care, with quality developmental programming and well-educated and well-trained early-child educators who are valued and appropriately compensated for the important work they do.
Investing in universal early learning and care will not be a panacea, but evidence shows that we could begin to improve the quality of life of children and, within a generation, receive that seven- to 16-fold return and see a marked reduction in poverty.
Yet, here we are, still ranking at the bottom or below the median on factors to do with our children and grandchildren. In Canada, the evidence certainly tells a different story about the value of our children.
Remember, “children are the future.” At this rate, when they get there, many of them will carry on the legacy of not really liking children, just like us.
Patrick Lewis is an associate professor in early childhood education at the University of Regina.
