Re “The child-care gap in Canada needs to close” (Editorial, July 24): The call to “prioritize the rapid expansion of child-care spaces” would just be asking governments to double down on a failed system.

The problem isn’t that governments haven’t prioritized space creation. In fact many provinces have set aggressive targets, but none have come close to meeting them.

Why? Governments underestimated the costs and complexities of the system they want to create.

Federal rules have also pushed out many of the very people, private entrepreneurs, best positioned to grow child-care spaces. The system also leans heavily toward 9-to-5 care, excluding anyone working different hours, typically lower-income parents.

Decades’ worth of Cardus research points to a better way: child-care providers joining hands with all parents, not the limited percentage preferring spots in centres. The answer should be subsidies for families, not centres.

Any federal solution that avoids this would continue to be plagued by the problems pointed out here – in perpetuity.

• Andrea Mrozek, Cardus Family Senior Fellow