FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 3, 2021 

OTTAWA, ON – The vast majority of Canadian parents with kids under six years old are using the same childcare arrangements that they were using before COVID-19 hit, a new survey finds. The Angus Reid Institute, in cooperation with think tank Cardus, has found 73% of parents have the same childcare arrangement today as they did pre-pandemic.

“The pandemic created significant uncertainty for providers and parents as our own case studies of BC and Ontario show, said Peter Jon Mitchell, Cardus Family Program Director. “Nearly a year into the pandemic, almost three quarters of parents are back with their previous arrangement or did not need to make any changes. And satisfaction with current arrangements is fairly high.”

Just over a quarter of parents found new arrangements that they continue to use. For those whose arrangements changed, the top three reasons for the change were:

• Their childcare provider closed due to COVID-19 or pandemic restrictions (53%)
• Concern about COVID-19 in daycare setting (34%)
• At least one parent was working from home (27%)

Satisfaction with current childcare arrangements was high, with 85% of parents agreeing their arrangement was working well or fine. Only 12% say their arrangement is just OK, while 3% say they would really prefer something different.

The survey also found that a slight majority of parents (53%) would prefer public childcare funding go to parents directly, instead of going to spaces.

“Parents have diverse care needs, especially during the pandemic,” said Mitchell. “Public policy should offer flexibility and respect families’ choices.”

Full survey results are available on the Angus Reid Institute website.

About ARI
The Angus Reid Institute (ARI) was founded in October 2014 by pollster and sociologist, Dr. Angus Reid. ARI is a national, not-for-profit, non-partisan public opinion research foundation established to advance education by commissioning, conducting and disseminating to the public accessible and impartial statistical data, research and policy analysis on economics, political science, philanthropy, public administration, domestic and international affairs and other socio-economic issues of importance to Canada and its world.