It’s time to build a childcare system we can be proud of
It has been a crazy six months for the families here in Medicine Hat. As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic closed both schools and childcare programs. Many of our programs have now re-opened. During this challenging time, the one thing that has emerged is how essential early learning and childcare programs are to our community.
In order for families to return to work or school, you need childcare options in which you feel safe knowing your children are taken care of and having experiences that allow them to develop optimally.
In April, an article came out called “Social solidarity and childcare are at the centre of social and economic recovery” by Kate Bezanson, Andrew Bevan, and Monica Lysack. This article hits home for many of us in the early learning and childcare field. The authors say the crisis has enhanced and clarified our collective understandings of what is essential to group life. The often invisible work and tasks that go into maintaining people on a daily and generational basis — broadly understood as care — are the foundation holding up our shared political, social and economic life.
It always requires investment — and urgently so when work, childcare, and schools are forced to close. This work requires recognition and relies on individual, government and group funding.
In times of crisis, assuring the work of care becomes even more evident and imperative. The bulk of this essential care work is overwhelmingly feminized, precarious when paid, and among the lowest wage work in the Canadian economy. That this work has now been deemed essential reveals both how our social fabric is vulnerable when recognition of this essential work is weak, and how its labours are an engine that sustains and builds toward recovery.
Sustaining and supporting this essential work therefore requires policy pivoting in crisis, in subsequent spending, and in recovery.
The authors go on to suggest that a national childcare plan is needed for recovery. We know the federal and provincial governments are looking at these issues intently right now.
We hope you will support this plan as it is vital to help create a system across Canada that we can be proud of instead of the patchwork system we currently have. We need to build a new comprehensive childcare system that knows more about families and what they need. Did you know there are parts of our province, even the surrounding areas of Medicine Hat, that are childcare deserts?
Our current system does provide high standards for supervision, sanitization, illnesses and injuries and emergency procedures. During the COVID pandemic, our programs have been following even stricter protocols to keep your children safe. The most up to date list can be found on the Government of Alberta’s website.
In terms of quality in early learning and childcare, families should be looking for environments that are staffed with early childhood educators who are well-qualified and educated for the work they do. Educators’ interactions with your child are of paramount importance and must be nurturing, reflective and intentional. Educators should thoughtfully prepare an environment that allows your child time to explore and learn through their play.
For more information on how to choose a program that works for your family, please check out our website at www. mhdcca.com.
In the end, what we really need is for parents and members of the public to recognize that high quality early learning and childcare is a critical component of the education to which every child has a right. Our local programs and early childhood educators need your support and recognition for the work they do in creating positive environments for our youngest citizens. If you have any stories you would like to share about how early learning and childcare has positively impacted your family, we would love to hear them!