Thread by @ArmineYalnizyan

Surprised that the campaign hasn't yet featured more debate about the 8 bilateral fed/prov/terr deals for early learning and childcare, 50 years in the making.
WAY more than an affordability issue. Critical to equity, economic recovery, and future economic potential.
#Elxn44

Some key facts about the Care Economy (paid activity in health/social assistance plus education sectors):

12.6% of GDP , and 21.3% of all jobs in June 2021, up from 12.3% of GDP and 20.4% of all jobs in February 2020, before the pandemic hit.
Nothing rivals its scale
#Elxn44

In the past year, unfilled vacancies shot up 53% in hospitals, and 49% in nursing and residential care facilities. Almost 100,000 healthcare sector jobs went unfilled by Q2 2021 (in a workforce of over 2.5 million people).
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

Healthcare professionals have a comparatively old demographic profile.
In 2020, over a third (34.5%) of registered nurses were aged 50 or older and 39% of doctors are 55 or older.

Many are burning out and leaving because of the pandemic.
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

It takes 10 years to train a doctor; 4 years to train a nurse.
Ask the people who want to represent you in Parliament:
What's their plan to ensure we have the qualified care we need when we need it?
What's the time frame for doing this? #CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

The # of hospital beds per 1,000 people fell from 4.4 to 2.2, 1997-2020 in Canada. (Finland:3.6; France:5.9; Germany:8)
Wait lists are long for long term care and licensed early learning and child care.
What's their plan to improve the Care Economy?
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

In 2020, only about half of Canada’s 2.3 million preschoolers (aged 0-5) received care from someone other than their parents. (This share was 75% in Quebec.) Only a quarter of our youngest children are in in a licenced/regulated care facility.
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

That means roughly 26% of our youngest neighbours (preschoolers, aged 0-5) spend an unlicensed, unregulated paid care setting when they are not with their parents. Is that good enough for you?
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

Of the $7B in public funding spent in 2020 on regulated child care, 43% went to for-profit providers across Canada. For-profit facilities provide most of the paid childcare in QC (53%) YK (54%), NS (56%), NB (67%) and NL (70%).
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

For-profit long-term care facilities account for only 29% of long-term care Canada-wide. But 57% of providers are for-profit in Ontario, 44% in Nova Scotia, and 37% in B.C.
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

Ask your candidates:
What is your position on the delivery of care through for-profit services in the Care Economy?
Should public dollars pay for profits? If so, in what instances?
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

From registered nurses to personal care workers, only 40% of staff in have full-time work in the long-term sector of care in Ontario. Over 1 in 10 are casual/on-call employees. Turnover is higher for part-timers and casuals, the majority of workers.
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

Health care workers account for almost 20% of all COVID-19 infections in Canada, a rate that is double the global health care worker infection rate (10%).
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

Ask your candidates:
Do you think that every job should be a good job in a sector that is essential for the functioning of everything else in the economy?
If so, how would you guarantee that?
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

Without enough paid care, women are more likely than men to pick up the unpaid care.
More women (64%) were responsible for homeschooling children due to school closures during the pandemic than men (19%).
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

There is not enough paid care in the Care Economy. More women (274,100) than men (163,320) have received Canada’s Recovery Caregiving Benefit so far.
February 2020-July 2021: men saw 362,000 more paid jobs, but 68,000 fewer women now have paid jobs
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

Ask your candidates what they think the role of the government should be to ensure a full recovery - which includes women participating at least at the rates they were before the pandemic, if you want things to get "back to normal" economically.
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

No recovery without a shecovery.
No shecovery without childcare.

Ask your candidates what they think about that statement.
#CareEconomyDataRoom
#Elxn44

Sources for all the factoids listed in this #CareEconomyDataRoom thread are at
thecareeconomy.ca/election2021 (some good resources there too)

Check out the 6 principles that ANY government will have to deal with for the Care Economy thecareeconomy.ca/statement/

#Elxn44

(moved tweet cuz it broke the thread)

Every party is offering more funding for the Care Economy. What is our money buying?
Ask them if their party's plan is tied to national standards of care that are enforceable.
What is their view of enforceable standards of care?

#Elxn44