SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 203 - May/31/23

Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

May/31/23 6:40:44 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-35

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague brought up the study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. She is absolutely right. It is called “Child Care Deserts in Canada”. I agree with her. We have a child care crisis. One of its key recommendations in the report to address this kind of child care desert was to guarantee decent wages and benefits for child care workers. It did not recommend creating a child care system that was privatized. That was not part of its recommendations. However, it did say that one of the factors that is resulting in child care deserts is the fact that early childhood educators continue to not be afforded decent wages and benefits. Does my colleague agree that we need to have a very clear workers strategy put in place that ensures all child care workers are paid decent wages and benefits?

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Context: House Hansard - 203 - May/31/23

Ms. Louise Chabot

May/31/23 7:08:25 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-35

Madam Speaker, it is because we put children first and we based this family policy around them. I remind members that this policy had two objectives: equal opportunity for children and work-life balance for parents. If we want to have a quality system, we need quality training for all educators working with our children. To achieve excellence, we must consider training conditions and teacher-educator ratios. Many elements were taken into account so that it would be a public system. The private child care system does not meet those objectives. A private system is there to make a profit. We know that early childhood day care services help children with their education and learning for their entire lives. When we think of children's rights, we need to invest in quality services. That is the choice we made.

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Context: House Hansard - 203 - May/31/23

Ms. Leah Gazan

May/31/23 7:25:58 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-35

Madam Speaker, I think it is very simple. It is very clear. Certainly the sector leaders like Child Care Now and all the major child care organizations have been very clear that if we want a successful national child care strategy, we need to ensure that we have a strategy for workers. That includes ensuring that early childhood educators are provided with livable wages and benefits and have income security in their retirement. We also need a strategy to train new workers entering the field, one that provides education to become qualified early childhood educators. The solutions are there. The government just needs to listen.

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Context: House Hansard - 203 - May/31/23

Ms. Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre, NDP)

May/31/23 8:08:10 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-35

Mr. Speaker, it has been nice working with the member across the way. I know I am insistent on this, but we do not have a workforce strategy in this plan. Early childhood educators deserve respect. I remember how much I loved being an early childhood educator but how disrespected I felt. I was only making eight dollars an hour, yet I was with kids from morning until night. I was doing noble work, but I had no benefits, lousy pay and no opportunity to even advance my education because I did not earn enough to pay for training. Can my hon. colleague commit to a workforce strategy that provides provinces and territories with the funding they need to ensure that workers or ECEs are paid livable wages and have benefits, income security as they become seniors, and training opportunities?

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Context: House Hansard - 203 - May/31/23

Mr. Richard Cannings (South Okanagan—West Kootenay, NDP)

May/31/23 11:45:20 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-35

Madam Speaker, the member mentioned, several times in his speech, the critical shortage of staff as one of the reasons people cannot access child care in Canada. When I talk to child care advocates in my riding and elsewhere, what comes up again and again is that staff need to be properly paid, with decent wages. Many of these staff workers are well-trained early childhood educators, yet they are not paid wages that reflect that and they are not allowed time for professional development. Would the member not say that this is something that should be part of this agreement: that staff must be properly paid in order to retain them and grow the industry?

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