Question Period Note: STATISTICS CANADA SIMULTANEOUS RELEASE OF THE 2023 CANADIAN SURVEY ON EARLY LEARNING AND CHILD CARE (CSELCC) AND SURVEY OF EARLY LEARNING AND CHILD CARE ARRANGEMENTS (SELCCA)

Results of the 2023 CSELCC in the provinces and 2023 SELCCA in the territories are released by Statistics Canada on December 5, 2023

The government welcomes the findings of these surveys, which were conducted earlier this year near the mid-point of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreements and help us better understand the child care landscape across the country .

The findings underscore decreasing child care expenses as well as growing parental concerns regarding the availability of spaces.

We will continue to work closely with provinces and territories to support the implementation of the Canada-wide system, including expanding access to high quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive child care.

Since fiscal year 2017-2018, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has collaborated with Statistics Canada on multiple national surveys to gain a better understanding of the early learning and child care (ELCC) landscape and, in so doing, support evidence-based decision-making by all levels of government.

The Canadian Survey on Early Learning and Child Care (CSELCC) and the Survey of Early Learning and Child Care Arrangements (SELCCA) are part of a larger effort by ESDC to address knowledge gaps and measure demand for, and the supply of, Early Learning and Child Card (ELCC) in Canada.

Combined together, the two surveys provide a snapshot of regulated and unregulated child care use (excluding kindergarten and occasional babysitting) in Canada including the different types of child care arrangements children use, difficulties some families may face when looking for child care, and reasons for not using child care.

The CSELCC also includes new research content to gain a better understanding of associations between labour market activities and work characteristics of parents in the household, and patterns of child care use, needs, and preferences.

Because of the restrictions imposed on the number of questions allowed on surveys fielded in the territories, Statistics Canada undertook the lengthier CSELCC in the 10 provinces only, while the shorter SELCCA was undertaken in the territories to collect comparable data to the CSELCC for purposes of obtaining Canada level estimates of child care demand comparable to 2019 and 2020 SELCCA.

Statistics Canada released the 2023 CSELCC/SELCCA through its website on December 5, 2023, including a summary of key findings published in The Daily and an updated series of aggregated data tables on:

Use of child care;

Types of child care arrangements used;

Reasons for choosing the main child care arrangement;

Difficulties finding child care and their consequences;

Reasons for not using child care; and,

Parental child care expenses.

The overall results provide a snapshot of the Canadian child care landscape near the mid-point of the 2021-2026 Canada-wide ELCC bilateral agreements following the lifting of COVID-19 public health restrictions. The results suggest:

A shift in the availability of different types of arrangements: Although child care participation rates were lower in winter-spring 2023 (56%) compared to winter 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic (60%), the proportion of children attending centre-based child care increased from 31% to 34% while the proportion of children attending home-based child care decreased from 12% to 9% over the same period.

Growing parental concerns regarding the availability of child care: Parents of children using child care in 2023 were more likely to report having encountered difficulties finding child care (49% compared to 36% in 2019) and to cite having had difficulty finding available child care specifically (62% compared to 53% in 2019). In addition, parents of children not using child care were more likely to report their child being on a waitlist (26% compared to 19% in 2022).

Decreasing parental child care expenses: Parental child care expenses for full-time, primary child care arrangements overall (regulated and unregulated) decreased from an average of $649 per month in winter 2022 to $544 per month in winter-spring 2023. Expenses for children attending full-time centre-based child care decreased from an average of $663 per month in 2022 to $508 in 2023; the Daily release notes that this decrease occurred at the same time as many provinces and territories began implementing reductions in child care fees.

It is important to note that results from these two surveys are not comparable to results reported by provinces and territories for several reasons.

First, the CSELCC and SELCCA collected data on the use and costs of all types of regulated and unregulated child care arrangements used by children, while provinces and territories collect data exclusively on licensed or regulated child care service providers receiving funding from the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care bilateral agreements and on the children they serve.

Second, the survey data correspond to patterns of child care demand at one point in time while data from provinces and territories represent the supply of child care services on an annual basis

Finally, the CSELCC collects data to understand parental decision-making, such as the role that perceived child care barriers related to accessibility (availability and location), affordability, flexibility, inclusivity, and quality play in child care choices—as opposed to directly measuring whether children have access to high quality, affordable, flexible, and inclusive child care.

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