Child Care and Canadian Federalism in the 1990s: Canary in a Coal Mine. Occasional Paper No. 11.

There is broad recognition in Canada that offering both early childhood education to strengthen healthy development for all children and child care to support mothers' workforce participation is in the public interest. Noting that Canada does not currently provide adequate early childhood care and education, this paper examines federal/provincial jurisdictional obstacles to a national child care strategy, especially those that arose in the 1990s. The paper first examines how a national child care program has been envisioned over the years, and clarifies the proposed roles and responsibilities of the various levels of government. This part examines three failed attempts to secure a national child care strategy in the context of the shifting federalism between 1984 and 1995. The paper also analyzes child care within the concept of the social union that began to be debated as the federal role in social programs waned in the 1990s. Finally, the Social Union Framework Agreement of February 1999 and its possibilities for a national child care program are appraised. The paper maintains that the Agreement's principles and state objectives not only create a new imperative for a national child care strategy but also provide new opportunities for implementation. The paper also argues that federal leadership is necessary for any national child care strategy's success, and proposes that an effective national strategy be used as a benchmark from which to evaluate nation-shaping political arrangements such as the Social Union Framework Agreement. Appended is a list of the presentations from the conference at which this paper was originally presented. (Contains 63 references.) (KB)