The constraints that caregiving, particularly motherhood, place on women in the working world are familiar and well-known, but there’s another factor to consider as well. Recent research shows that mothers who have used subsidized child care in Quebec enjoy substantially increased long-term earnings and greater career advancement. The results, while interesting, are unsurprising.
But there’s a problem when governments pay too much attention to financial metrics in devising family policy. There is more than money or advancement at stake. Canadian families can end up with programs that do not serve their needs.
This is happening with Canada’s new child-care program, which is designed largely through an economic lens. Caregiving obligations, which disproportionately fall to women, are viewed by governments as impeding economic production. This idea leads to universal daycare programs that are crafted to encourage participation in the labour force, particularly among mothers of young children.
These programs encourage mothers to work by making a particular way of organizing economic life more feasible. Universal daycare assumes a standard way of raising children and organizing family life. Families whose care and employment choices sync with these assumptions benefit. But not all families share the same priorities or make the same decisions about how best to organize caregiving and work.
Economic goals are shaping child-care policy
From the government’s perspective, women’s participation in the labour force means increased tax revenue and increased gross domestic product (GDP). These numbers loom large in how Canada fares in international economic comparisons. Canada has been found to have a productivity crisis by both the Bank of Canada and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This increases pressure on the government to create policies to fix that.
When economic policy masquerades as family policy, the government is tilting the scale in its favour. Advocates present the current federal approach of highly subsidized child care as a choice, but in reality it nudges cash-strapped parents toward the government’s preferred option with its economic benefits.
Consider the rhetoric used by the previous Liberal government as it advanced its universal $10-a-day child-care plan, which would become law in 2024. Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and his families minister Karina Gould both described the plan as giving children “the best start in life.” Who wouldn’t want that for their child?
But the “best start” language is a far cry from what research shows. Despite aspirations toward high daycare standards, results vary widely. The Quebec auditor general reported in 2024 that nearly 30 per cent of child care failed the province’s own quality assessment (p.112).
A reasonable expectation is for a more neutral approach by governments so that parents can navigate financial, caregiving and family obligations in different ways. Universal daycare is not the only way. Options include increasing the Canada Child Benefit or providing care vouchers to offset costs across a wider spectrum of child-care options. The federal government could also address affordability by lowering the tax burden on families with young children or by providing a universal basic income.
Parents holding their newborns — especially for the first time in their lives — become acutely aware of their care responsibilities, for one thing, having enough money to provide for that child. But that’s only one aspect of many. There is a trade-off when parents work full time and use institutional child care. They increase their earnings over the long term, but decrease time with their children.
Research into the expectations of working mothers shows a range of preferences. A recent U.S. survey of married women with children under five found 39 per cent considered working full time as ideal. Roughly the same percentage preferred part time. A further 20 per cent preferred not to work at all.
Yet highly subsidized universal daycare encourages families to use more of it. About 28 per cent of children in the Quebec system are in care for 45 hours a week or more — much longer than older children spend in school.
The paradox of Quebec fatherhood: valued but under-supported
Long hours in care have been correlated with social-emotional challenges and behavioural issues. The same economists responsible for the recent Quebec study have previously published findings that daycare in that province correlated to troublesome behaviour in children, more hostile parenting, less consistent parenting and lower-quality parental relationships.
Family policy should leave room for different choices
This doesn’t mean all families who use daycare in Quebec are doomed to poor outcomes. A large body of research finds mixed results, but it does indicate that universal child care comes with costs to family relationships.
How Quebec’s child-care approach helps advance women in their careers may be seen as positive by some, but it is only one aspect to consider — and not necessarily the most important one. Fixating on economic outcomes risks failing to adequately account for the various ways families wish to handle paid work and caregiving. Child-care programs should put parents in the driver’s seat when it comes to balancing work and family obligations.
Governments should not push parents into lifestyles they wouldn’t otherwise choose. Nor should child-care policies be presented as beneficial to families when the benefit is more about the government’s bottom line.
