A Profile of the Childcare Services Industry - ARCHIVED

The childcare services industry in Canada is unique in that it is entrusted with a precious resource: close to 1.4 million children. Childcare providers assist with the daunting tasks of promoting child development, ensuring children's safety and well-being, and maintaining responsive relationships with individual children.

This paper examines the childcare services industry in Canada and is divided into three basic parts. First, the article studies the demand for childcare services, including the $3.5 billion spent by households for these services. The financial characteristics of the industry and the roles played by the non-profit sector and government fee-subsidy and grant programs are examined next. And the final section looks at some of the characteristics of the childcare workforce.