New report finds child-care spots available for only 29 per cent of those who need it

A new report on child care availability in Canada suggests the crisis has worsened, and highlights the key issues behind it.

A new report details a lack of child-care spaces is at a crisis level in Canada and why it has worsened.

The report, published in April 2023 by the non-profit Childcare Resources and Research Unit, shows just one spot in a child-care setting was available for 29 per cent of children who need it.

During lockdown orders, the crisis took centre stage for parents who had to take time off work in order to care for their child. However, the issue has persisted for decades, according to Morna Ballantyne, executive director of Child Care Now, an advocacy organization.

"I think one of the things that's driving the shortage of licensed spaces is that child care has been in the news a lot," Ballantyne told CTV's Your Morning on Monday.

Recently, the federal government created a plan in partnership with the provinces and territories to create more than 300,000 new child-care spaces and bring down the fee to $10 a day in the next five years.

"So a lot of parents, families for whom child care was unaffordable in the past, they now see that maybe they could afford it," Ballantyne said. "So they're out there looking and adding their names to waiting lists."

Ballantyne said the crisis is not new, citing her own experience with child care in Canada 39 years ago when she had to add her unborn child to a waitlist.