Members of the National Children's Alliance

• Adoption Council of Canada
• Big Brothers and Sisters of Canada
• Canadian Association for Community Living
• Canadian Association of Family Resource Programs
• Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
• Canadian Association of Social Workers
• Canadian Child Care Federation
• Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children
• Canadian Council on Social Development
• Canadian Institute of Child Health
• Canadian Living Foundation
• Canadian Mental Health Association
• Canadian Nurses Association
• Canadian Parents for French
• Canadian Parks & Recreation Association
• Canadian Public Health Association
• Canadian School Boards Association
• Canadian Teachers' Federation
• Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
• Child Welfare League of Canada
• Children's Aid Society
• Family Service Canada
• Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada
• Foundation for Active Healthy Kids
• Frontier College
• Learning Disabilities Association of Canada
• National Anti-Poverty Organization
• National Voluntary Organizations
• National Youth In Care Network
• Pollution Probe
• Scouts Canada
• SOS Children's Villages Canada
• UNICEF Canada
• United Way of Canada - Centraide Canada
• Vanier Institute of the Family
• YMCA Canada
• YWCA of/du Canada

Introduction

The National Children's Alliance (Alliance) is a group of thirty-seven national organizations committed to enhancing the well-being of children and youth in Canada. The group shares information, works co-operatively, and devises strategies to promote a national children's agenda. Together we represent hundreds of thousands of people in our communities across Canada who care about and advocate for children, youth and their families.

Investing in children provides benefits for all Canadians in the short and long term. In Securing our Future Together, it was recognized "Community-based services play a critical role in helping parents ensure the healthy development of their children. By helping young children get off to a good start and preventing problems before they occur, these programs significantly decrease the need for far greater spending in the future."

After September 11th, the Alliance recognizes that national security issues need to be on the agenda. However, it is important that we continue to invest in economic and social development. Public investment in social, human and cultural capital is not critical only to prepare our children for the jobs of the future, but builds a level of trust, recognition, and respect for diversity that assures that all Canadians can participate in a positive way to the development of our country.

In today’s "information age", the national economy is more and more based on the ability produce, apply and create new knowledge. The primary source of this knowledge is human capital. Canada must invest in the talents of people and build a skilled workforce.

The majority of Canadians believe that social programs are an essential part of Canada’s social fabric. The evolving dynamics of linguistic and cultural communities, and the growing Aboriginal population requires bold political leadership to ensure Canada remains a prosperous and just society. These times require a clear national message that inclusion and social justice remain important aspects of Canada.

Despite the steps taken by the federal, provincial and territorial governments to improve and enhance the Early Childhood Development services, the National Child Benefit and parental leave, the Alliance is acutely aware that many children and youth are living at risk - denied the opportunity to develop to their full potential because families are not receiving the range of supportive services they need. Families have the primary responsibility to care for, nurture and guide children throughout the various stages of development; however, all Canadians have a collective responsibility to support families to create opportunities for children to develop and grow.

A National Children's Agenda cannot be implemented without the active participation of the voluntary / NGO sector at both the national and local levels. A collaborative strategy for the implementation and monitoring of a National Children's Agenda policy framework still needs to be established.

The Alliance also recognizes the need for the federal government to work with Aboriginal governments, organizations and communities for programs destined for Aboriginal youth and families living on and off reserve. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal governments must work together to address the acute needs, challenges and opportunities of Aboriginal children and youth.

• Standard of Living for well-being of children and families
• A Socio-Economic Environment preparing the next generation for a New Economy
• Citizen Engagement and Accountability

Standard of Living for the Well-Being of Children and Families

Income security programs provide a foundation for ensuring social inclusion. Our tradition of using the tax system and social security programs is entrenched in our Canadian values. Children live in families and parents have primary responsibility for their children but as a society we take responsibility for improving equality of opportunity through income redistribution.

Expand National Child Benefit for all Low-Income Families

The cornerstone of a strategy to address income security for low-income families is an indexed National Child Benefit (NCB). Currently, the NCB is a joint federal, provincial and territorial government initiative designed to reduce the depth of child poverty and to "promote attachment to the workforce" by reducing the added costs of employment.

All programs and services under the National Child Benefit should be made available to low-income families regardless of the family’s source of income. Some social assistance rates force families to live in poverty. Entry into the labour market is hampered by too many low wage jobs and lack programs to support labour market participation (affordable, quality child care for example). Although some families may be better off financially by staying on social assistance than accepting low-wage employment, the long-term solution must be to improve the labour market. Today, the poorest children should not be penalized due to their parents’ lack of participation in the labour force.

ACTION: Work with the provincial and territorial governments to expand the National Child Benefit to all low-income families

Non-Refundable Child Tax Credit

Canada is one of only a few industrialized countries that do not recognize the cost of raising children in its tax system. Previous income tax provisions such as the tax exemption for families with children (converted into a non-refundable child tax credit in 1988) and the refundable child tax credit were eliminated by 1993. A child tax credit recognizes the costs of raising children for families with a parent at home or in the workforce. In order to support families with children we are asking for a non-refundable $2,000 tax credit, coordinated with the National Child Benefit, for each child under 18.

ACTION: Invest $2,000 per child through a tax credit

Support for Children with Special Needs

The Alliance recognizes the financial challenges involved for families with children with special needs. At this time we are asking the Finance Minister to review the impact of current tax policy on these families and make recommendations for improving fairness to ensure that the needs of these families are considered.

ACTION: Review the impact of tax policy on families with children with special needs.

Improved Income Security through the Employment Insurance Program

The 1996 changes to eligibility regulations have radically reduced the number of workers who can draw on Employment Insurance (EI) maternity and parental benefits (as well as other EI benefits). Between 1996 and 1997 the number of maternity and parental beneficiaries fell by 7% compared with a drop in the number of births of only 2%. Further, there is a serious backlog in the processing of applications and disbursement of benefits. Part of the accumulated surplus of the EI program to provide needed financial support to families during that first crucial year of a child’s life.

The federal budget in the year 2000 extended maternity and parental leave benefits under EI to one year from six months. This is an important move to assist families in balancing work and family responsibilities. Further to improving the EI program discussed above, more action is needed to improve parental leave.

ACTION: The federal government should increase parental leave from 55% to 75% of earnings as well as eliminate the waiting period. We recommend an expansion of eligibility to include others such as the self-employed and part-time workers. Reducing processing time and improving conditions of entitlement would stabilize income support.

Socio-Economic Environment for a New Economy

Income security measures alone cannot promote optimal outcomes for children. Families need access to a comprehensive range of services and community supports to ensure the healthy development of children and youth, including those who may be at risk of not reaching their potential.

Social and Community Supports

Canadians face many challenges to prepare the next generation for the emerging new global economy. These include creating and maintaining an inclusive and supportive socio-economic environment that Canadians pride themselves on. With the changing demographics in Canada and cuts to social programs during the 1990s, the support systems many Canadians rely on are operating at under-capacity to serve community needs. Some of the deficiencies include the lack of co-ordination of health and social services as well as instability of funding for key programs and services.

With the signing of the Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA), all levels of government have recognized the need to work together to provide funding and a supportive infrastructure for integrated service delivery systems that are responsive to community needs. The voluntary / NGO sector is increasingly engaged in meeting the needs of families at the community level through the delivery of services.

The federal government needs to continue to take leadership to work with other levels of governments and the third sector (voluntary and non-governmental organizations) in developing a systemic and integrated approach to support community services and programs. It is critical that we find sustainable mechanisms of collaboration among federal, provincial and territorial governments, and civil society that enables communities to deliver programs and services that have been identified as critical components of the National Children's Agenda.

With the signing of the Early Childhood Development agreement in September 2000 and the federal investment, the importance of the early years (0-6) has been recognized at the national level in a public policy context. It is now time to broaden the scope to address some of the critical challenges facing children and youth from 6 – 18.

Youth from low-income environments face the most formidable challenges in establishing themselves in the job market. Youth at risk drop out of school at alarming levels; 20% of 20 year-olds drop out of high school; 40% of those who leave are 16 or younger; 62% have grade 10 or less. The key issues of youth at risk need to be addressed before they drop out of school. Enabling high-risk youth to successfully make the transition to adulthood requires multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral preventative approaches that begin pre-youth to support children and families.

Today, Canada's child welfare system that serves our most at-risk children and youth is in urgent need of support. There has been a substantive increase of approximately 50% of children in the care of child welfare authorities. In Canada today approximately 20,000 children are permanent wards of the state. Within these systems there is a lack of funding for preventive programs, post-placement services and other critical supports.

Although as a society we need to make sure our most at-risk children and youth are cared for, there is increasing evidence that socio-economic status is not the only predictor. According the National Longitudinal Study on Children and Youth there are more children at risk in the middle class than any other segment of the Canadian population.

Our challenge is to promote social inclusion for all our children and youth so that they can participate fully in society and reach their individual potential. It is imperative that we do give priority to the development of a comprehensive and integrated approach in public policy and at the community program level to promote social inclusion.

ACTION: The federal government should show leadership as it did with the establishment of the ECD agreement to extend the implementation of the National Children’s Agenda to establish a partnership with governments and the voluntary/NGO sector to address the urgent needs of children of youth ages 6-18 for programs such as:

• Literacy;
• Stay-in-school;
• Community-based after-school programs to reach children and youth at risk;
• School to work transition;
• Preventative mental health services;
• Recreation;
• Special needs; and
• Family support and preservation.

A National Youth Agenda

There is growing momentum to position youth issues as a national priority with the creation of an overarching vision for the youth of Canada. The federal government's commitment to a skills and learning agenda needs to include a strong focus on youth in order to be successful in its implementation. Concerns over youth engagement, civic participation, media stereotyping, the education system and commercialization of youth space are becoming part of policy dialogue particularly within the voluntary / NGO sector. In April of this year a National Youth Summit was held to celebrate the International Year of the Volunteer. It provided a forum for a collective discourse led by youth. Throughout the conference the systemic problem of youth issues staying at the margins of public policy debates surfaced. It is now time to find ways to engage youth in policy development.

Action: Recognizing the rights and responsibilities of youth to participate in public policy decisions that affect them, support the voluntary / NGO sector to work with youth across Canada in a process of youth engagement to develop a national youth agenda.

Early Childhood Development

Signed in September 2000, the inter-governmental Early Childhood Development (ECD) agreement has resulted in much needed federal investment in services for children 0-6 and their families. Provincial and territorial governments have agreed to expand services and programs in the areas of: healthy pregnancy, birth and infancy; parenting and family supports; early childhood development, learning and care; and community supports. All four areas are critical.

The agreement provides choice for investment and does not hold public spending accountable for each of the areas. It is a menu of services, although we know that all four areas are critical components of an integrated community model to foster child development.

Close to 1.4 million children use paid child care services in Canada but there are only about 500,000 regulated spaces. The early years of childhood are especially vital to child’s development and future ability to learn. Supporting early childhood development can have long-term benefits that extend throughout people’s lives. Research shows that participation in high quality early childhood care and education enhances language and social development and the chance of school success.

Governments, including the federal government need to continue to invest in early childhood through the ECD agreement particularly in child care to make sure that appropriate services, subsidies and the number of regulated child care spaces are enhanced to meet the gap in demand. This investment would result in qualifiable outcomes for both children and parents.

Action: In the context of future enhancement to the current ECD agreement, the federal, provincial and territorial governments should work collaboratively on a coordinated national plan to address the urgent child care needs of children and their families.

A National Housing Plan

Another pressing issue that needs to be immediately addressed is housing. The drastic cutbacks to the construction of social housing in the mid-1990s and the reduction of construction of rental housing units by the private sector has led to a decline in vacancy rates in all major urban centers, high pressure for rent increases and severe housing shortages in many Canadian cities. Families with children are now the fastest segment of the homeless population.

According to the 1996 Census, 516,000 families with children live in housing that is in need of major repair, is overcrowded or that consumes more than 30% of their pre-tax income. Secure and affordable housing benefits Canadian society as a whole as it plays a central role to maintain and improve families’ health, children’s academic success, participation in the labour market and neighborhood security.

This situation requires immediate public intervention. The answer cannot be found simply in private sector development since the rental charges for new apartments are beyond the reach of many families. The federal government’s four-year capital grants initiative with the provinces and territories is welcome, but the current level of resources falls far short of the requirements for new rental housing.

Action: Establish a national housing plan with additional resources for social housing.

Protection of our social services in the international arena

There is discussion that services health care and education will be included in the upcoming General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) meeting. Canadians strongly support their public services such as health, social services and education.

Action: The federal government should maintain its position not to make commitments concerning public services, health, and public education at the upcoming (GATS) negotiations.

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Canada has a rich tradition of civic and voluntary activity. The voluntary / NGO sector is working at all levels of society to enhance the well-being of children and youth through community development initiatives. Governments are recognizing the key role that the voluntary sector plays in policy development, social service delivery, citizen engagement and healthy communities. Successful implementation of the National Children's Agenda will be dependent upon a vibrant third sector to collaborate in the planning, implementation and evaluation phases. The voluntary / NGO sector's role in national information sharing is crucial for dissemination of best practices in program delivery and evaluation.

Monitoring Expenditures

Within the ECD agreement First Ministers acknowledged the need for accountability through public reporting with their commitment to:

• annual reports beginning in 2002 on investments and progress from an established baseline of expenditures and activities;
• a shared framework of agreed upon comparable indicators for the expenditures and activities; and
• regular reporting on child well-being using agreed upon common outcome indicators.

Current knowledge of research on effective programming and best practice in service delivery provides some tools for a systemic approach to assessing services and programs for "reasonable comparability". One would hope to find a familiar basket services to meet family needs when moving to a different community across Canada. Public dialogue on what works at the community level is needed to scope out what Canadians believe should be the core of public services.

The intent of the baseline government reports is to identify current spending on all ECD programs and services for 2000/2001 prior to the new federal dollars entering the system via the CHST. It is critical that baselines are clearly articulated and easily understood so that communities and organizations can track funding by jurisdiction. There will be challenges in defining the boundaries of ECD. It appears that when governments make public their baselines we cannot expect to see any consistency in reporting across jurisdictions. This will make it difficult to hold governments to account concerning their ECD program funding and to make comparisons across jurisdictions. It is critical that the voluntary / NGO sector play a role in monitoring and in working with our constituents in other jurisdictions.

Action: Fund third party monitoring of expenditures of the ECD agreement.

Engaging the community in public policy

Within these recent government agreements there are common themes of transparency and process. In the area of reporting to the public, the ECD agreement will set the standard for the future. As leaders and organizations of the voluntary / NGO sector, we have a role to play in bringing our knowledge, expertise and community perspectives to the decision-making processes. As the third party in monitoring, we need to ensure that the indicators used are seen as "works in progress" that can be updated to respond to new research and emerging issues. It is time for us to be at the table.

Action: Create sustainable mechanisms to engage the voluntary / NGO sector in the policy development processes at the federal level particularly within the context of federal/provincial/territorial decision making on a National Children’s Agenda.

Research and public policy

As we implement National Children’s Agenda it is critical that evaluation mechanisms are considered. In the collaboration among governments and the voluntary sector to deliver community services and supports, national research and reporting is needed to monitor what makes a difference in the lives of children, youth and families. As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Canada also has an international obligation to monitor the health and well-being of children.

The ECD agreement and its commitment to monitoring is an opportunity to continue the research and data collection. From the perspective of the voluntary sector, recognition that this work is in its infancy provides us with an opportunity to engage with governments in an ongoing process of development. It is time to push the debate beyond our collective reliance on deficit-based outcome indicators such as illness or standard milestones towards an asset based approach.

One aspect of public accountability is the link between outcome measures with policy changes. Although we are just beginning to look at outcomes with the results of the National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth there is a critical need to expand our data collection capacity to enable analysis of outcomes at the community level. There is also a serious lack of basic quantitative data on service delivery to children, youth and families.

The National Children’s Alliance recommends the development and implementation of a sustainable long-term national strategy to monitor the health and well-being of Canada’s children and youth in collaboration with the voluntary / NGO sector. This strategy needs to include a national research agenda, coordinated data collection systems and a national mechanism for reporting. This comprehensive approach would integrate current federal initiatives. The development of an independent third party monitoring process, which includes the voluntary / NGO sector, should be considered an essential part of the national strategy.

ACTION: Develop and implement a National Policy and Funding Strategy to enable capacity building in the Voluntary / NGO Sector to develop comprehensive indicators to measure child well-being.

Monitoring the Social Union Framework Agreement

The implications of the ECD agreement extend well beyond services for early childhood. Next year The Social Union Framework Agreement will be reviewed and the ECD agreement is the major inter-governmental initiative under SUFA. If we hope to see sustainable national infrastructure for health and social services across jurisdictions now is the time to bolster the policy research capacity of the voluntary sector to enable effective participation in these complex inter-governmental policy making processes.

Action: Fund third party monitoring in the 2002 review of SUFA

Building Public Commitment

Raising awareness among Canadians about the rights of the child and critical determinants of healthy child development through public engagement will serve to mobilize individuals and communities. Educating the public can inspire positive social change at the individual, community and national levels.

ACTION: Develop an integrated public education campaign on the determinants of child health and support awareness and monitoring of the United Nations Convention of the Child.

Conclusion

In the past few years, governments have clearly illustrated their collective commitment to improving policy and programs for children and youth through the NCA, ECD and other initiatives. There is much more work to be done.

The voluntary / NGO sector has always played a role in making Canada a better place to live. Today, this sector is ready to participate with governments in all aspects of the delivery of services and programs to those in need. At this particular time, the voluntary / NGO sector’s participation in the monitoring of the ECD is vital to establish guidelines and partnerships in monitoring and research and to develop working relationships.

We now hope that the federal government will seize the opportunity to provide immediate leadership in the development and implementation of a National Children's Agenda. It is time to translate good intentions into action. The children of Canada deserve no less.