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Regional Economic Development
For every buck that
the government throws into child care in Ontario, it's like giving the
local economy a little booster shot, right? Economists call this cool
effect "multipliers," and boy, do they love to talk about it! These
multipliers can be anywhere from 1.6 to 3.25, depending on the neck of
the woods you're looking at. Basically, if we put one dollar into child
care, we can see up to $3.25 coming out the other end for the local
economy.
Now, let's talk about
how this plays out in Ontario. For every single public dollar we spend
on child care there, we get back $2.27 in economic output. Not too
shabby, right? But here's the catch: the current setup has its limits.
If we're just talking about part-time care or stuff that's not
top-notch, it doesn't really help our local economies grow like they
could. Plus, when families have to go for the "plan B" of unlicensed,
informal care because the good stuff isn't around, that's not giving our
regions the same kind of economic pep talk that quality, full-time care
does.
So, for real,
sustainable growth in our neck of the woods, we need full-time,
top-quality, licensed child care that's easy to find everywhere we offer
our services. And here's the kicker: when folks have to settle for those
informal care arrangements because there's no other choice, it's not
doing the same thing for the economy that a solid, well-run child care
system does. The research is pretty clear on this – good child care is
like gold for our local economies.
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Labour Force Mobilization
Employment levels are
tied to how easy it is to get child care, you know? When both mom and
dad are trying to work and they've got these job woes, like working
weird shifts or only being able to find jobs in one field, and then
they've got the whole kid care situation to figure out, it can get
pretty stressful. So, they might just decide it's easier for one of them
to stay home with the kids. For single parents, that's not really on the
table as an option.
There's this thing in
Canada, where if you look at the stats, you'll see that more and more
parents are working part-time rather than full-time because that's all
the child care they can get to line up with their work schedule. It's
like a 2011 OECD report showed that the number of moms working part-time
went up a lot from 1976. And let's be real, when a bunch of people are
working part-time, it doesn't do much for the big picture of the
economy.
But here's the kicker: if
we want to keep things fair between the genders and make sure everyone
can keep working and having babies without breaking the bank, we need
some solid policies in place to support these working families. Like, if
it's a piece of cake for women to juggle work and kids, they're more
likely to keep their jobs and have more kids, which is good for
everyone, right? And it helps with that whole retirement and pension
deal too. So, it's important we make it work for them. And, apparently,
according to some big shot research from Goldman Sachs, places where
it's a breeze for women to work and start families, they usually have
more working moms and more babies being born.
So, the cost of child
care plays a huge role in how many hours people can work. If it's too
high, parents might just say, "forget it," and settle for part-time
gigs. And that's not just about the Benjamins, it's about making sure
everyone gets a fair shake in the job market.