This is how outrageous child care costs in Canada have become

Parents in Canada pay too much for child care.

That’s the big take away from a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The Parent Trap breaks down child care costs by city and province, revealing that no matter where you live in Canada (except in Quebec, where parents can access the province’s $7-a-day child care program), day care costs represent a big chunk of a parent’s income.

That can range from 4% of a woman’s salary in Gatineau, Quebec to up to 36% of a woman’s salary in Brampton, Ontario.

Take, for example, fees for infant care. If you live in Quebec, it costs a median of $152 per month. Winnipeg comes in a distant second, with a median of $651. The rest of the cities land somewhere between $800 (Saskatoon) to $1,676 (Toronto).

The range in child care fees for pre-schoolers run from a median of $152 in Quebec to a median of $1,324 in Toronto. For pre-schoolers, the median goes from $152 in Quebec to $988 in Toronto.

And although over three-quarters of Canadian mothers of children under six participate in the labour force, the report points out that, “Canada spends less on early childhood education and care than most OECD countries.”

Drawing from the OECD family database, Canada edges out Cyprus to land in the 35th spot out of 39 countries, just behind Estonia and the Slovak Republic.

Here’s what this looks like in four charts:

Photo: Pixabay. Used under Creative Commons licence.