Child Care Now has endorsed Up4Debate 2021, a Canada-wide initiative to make sure that intersectional gender equity and human rights are addressed in the next federal election. Child Care Now’s Executive Director, Morna Ballantyne, was a panelist at the campaign kickoff.
Ballantyne said that the $34 billion child care spending commitment set out in the recently tabled 2021 federal budget is a historic step towards building the Canada-wide system of early learning and child care that advocates have called for since the mid-1970s.
She noted that the system must be designed to raise the quality of child care programs, and at the same time lower parent fees. Also, she stressed the system must be inclusive and culturally safe, and provide a variety of child care services to meet the diverse needs of children and of mothers in and out of the paid labour force.
Also, on the panel at the launch of Up for Debate2021, were advocates for accessible and affordable housing, decent work, and the end to gender based violence.
Up for Debate 2021 is calling on all federal parties in Canada to:
- Outline action plans in support of women’s rights, gender justice, and an intersectional feminist economic recovery in their election platforms and commitments
- Focus on women’s rights and gender justice in all federal leaders’ debate(s).