Québec’s early childhood

and family policy

Kerry McCuaig

Fellow Early Childhood Policy

Atkinson Centre, OISE

University of Toronto, Canada

Québec Premier Pauline Marios

Québec Rest of Canada

Historical context • Québec was a disadvantaged region, “ran by

the church & the mob”

• The minority Anglophone population dominated,

particularly the economy

• Decline in use and proficiency in French

• 1975 a new party, the Parti Quebecois, elected

dedicated to an independent Québec

• Precipitated a capital strike

• 1980, 1995 narrowly lost sovereignty referenda

Poor social indicators

• Québec’s academic scores were below the

national average

• High school drop-out rate, particularly among

French-speaking youth

• Lower post secondary enrolment

• Lowest rate of women in the labour force

• Declining birth rate – below the national average

• High rates of poverty and underemployment

Québec’s activist social agenda

since the mid-1990s

• The Prescription Drug Insurance Plan (1997)

• The $7-a-day Early Childhood Centres (1997)

• Universal school-age programs

• The 2002 Act to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion

states the broad objectives of policy

• The Child Assistance measure (2005)

• The Work Premium (2005)

• The Québec Parental Insurance Plan (2006)

• Controlled post-secondary tuitions

Source: Statistics Canada (CANSIM 384-0004).

QC

AT

Nat’l

average

ON BC

PR

Total provincial and local government expenditure

as % of regional GDP in five Canadian regions, 2007

32

28

24

20

16

%

Québec’s 3-part family policy

• Enhanced parental leave – 1 year at

75% of salary

• Early education Centres for Little

Children >4 years old

• School-provide before-and after-school

programs to age 12

• Significant child allowance

Preschool programs

• Attended by children 0-4 years-old

• Parent fees capped at $7/day

• Enhanced pre- and in-service training

for the EC workforce

• Union negotiated pay scale, benefits

and pension plan – on par with average

incomes

• Play-based curriculum

Growth in EC spaces for children 0-4

years, 1997-2012

(McCain, Mustard & McCuaig, 2011)

NL 31%

PE 41%

NS 38%

NB 36%

QC

69% ON 56%

ECEC Across Canada Percentage of 2 – 4-year-olds regularly attending an ECE centre

by provinces and Canada

MB 43%

SK 34%

AB 31%

BC 41%

Canada:

52%

(McCain, Mustard & McCuaig, 2011)

NL 0.86%

PE

1.71%

NS

1.39%

NB

1.28%

QC

4.67% ON

2.01%

ECEC Across Canada ECE budget as a percentage of provincial/territorial budgets 2011-12

MB

1.59%

SK

1.36%

AB

1.13% BC 1.30%

NU 0.59% NT 0.88%

YK

1.15%

What has low cost early education

and care done for Québec?

• 70,000 more mothers are working

• And draw $340-million less in social

transfers

• They pay $1.5-billion annually in taxes

• Boosting the GDP by $5-billion

Source: Fortin, P., Godbout, L., & St-Cerny. (2012).

Québec mothers have:

• Moved Québec from the bottom to the top in

female labour force participation in Canada

• Halved child poverty rates

• Halved social assistance rates for lone parents

• Boosted fertility

• Meanwhile, Québec women now top university

enrolment and Québec student test scores have

moved from below to above the national

average

Done right early education and care pays for itself

For ever dollar Québec spends on

ECE, it collects $1.05 in increased

taxes and reduced family payments,

while the federal government gets

$0.44

Source: Fortin, P., Godbout, L., & St-Cerny. (2012).

Women’s employment soars

56

60

64

68

72

76

80

86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08

Employment rate of women aged 25 to 44 in Quebec

and in all other provinces from 1985 to 2009

%

Source: Statistics Canada.

Quebec

All otherprovinces

Quebec’s fertility rate exceeds the

national average

48

52

56

60

64

68

72

84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08

Number of births per 1,000 women aged 18 to 44

in Quebec and in all other provinces from 1985 to 2008

%

Source: Statistics Canada.

Quebec

All otherprovinces

Median purchasing power of families

is greater in Quebec

Median disposable income ($) of families with

children, adjusted for the cost of living, 2008

Family type Quebec Ontario Ratio(%)

Two-parent 76,500 76,900 99

Lone-parent 44,000 35,100 125

(female-headed)

Source: Statistics Canada (CANSIM 202-605 and 326-0015).

Universality is more equitable

QC

C

A

OECD

Averag

e

USA

Source: OECD.

Math scores for 15 year olds 2011

550

540

530

520

510

500

490

480

470

Source: Statistics Canada (CANSIM 202-0802).

QC

PR

Nat’l

average ON

B

C

AT

% children > 17 living in poverty by region

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

%

But there are challenges!!

Growth versus Quality

• Heavy reliance on in-home child care

where staff less qualified and quality

lower

• Expansion of for-profit centres where

quality is lower

• Poor infrastructure – leading to poor

planning, inequities and graft

Develo

pm

enta

l advanta

ge (

month

s)

1-2 years 2-3 years

ECE program attendance

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

low-quality

average

high-quality

Quality and duration matter

(months of developmental age)

Quality linked to better outcomes

Preschool quality and self-regulation and pro-social behaviour (age 11) E

ffect siz

e

Self-regulation Pro-social behaviour

0.30

0.25

0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.00

low

medium

high

Preschool

quality

Early Childhood Education Index

BC

AB

SK

MB

ON

QC

NB

NS

PE

NL

Governance

Funding

Accountability

Access

Learning

Environment

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Progress and challenges

Québec has made considerable progress:

•Raised its average education level

•Raised its employment rate

•Raised its standard of living and reduced poverty

But many challenges remain:

•Productivity is lagging

•The school drop-out rate is still too high

•The large public sector is not easy to manage

•The quality of child care needs improvment

•Population aging will entail a fiscal squeeze

Bottom line

"The Amazon is cool but the St. Lawrence

is such a magnificent river!"

Alexis de Tocqueville

(paraphrased)

August 1831

www.pointsurlapetiteenfance.org

www.earlyyearsstudy.ca