One of the most powerful advocacy tools available to the child care sector may also be one of the simplest: asking parents what they think.
Over the past several years, discussions about the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system have focused on affordability, expansion targets, workforce shortages, and government funding agreements. These conversations are essential, but they often overlook the people experiencing the system every day. While policymakers debate how the system should evolve, parents are living the results.
Andrew Fleck Children’s Services (AFCS) in Ottawa recently conducted its fourth survey of families since the introduction of CWELCC. The goal was straightforward: understand how affordable child care is affecting families and what challenges remain. The results were both powerful and remarkably consistent with previous surveys. Parents reported that reduced child care fees allowed them to return to work, pay down debt, save for the future, make healthier lifestyle choices, reduce financial stress, and even consider having another child. These are not minor benefits. They are life-changing outcomes that demonstrate why affordable child care has become one of Canada’s most important social and economic policies.
The Value of Parent Perspectives
What makes the AFCS survey particularly valuable is not simply the positive feedback it received, but the consistency of the responses over time. Four separate surveys have produced many of the same themes. Parents continue to describe affordable child care as a critical factor in their ability to participate in the workforce, achieve greater financial stability, and plan for their family’s future.
For the child care sector, this kind of information is incredibly important. We often rely on statistics to demonstrate impact: labour force participation rates, fee reductions, expansion targets, and workforce data. These metrics matter, but they do not always capture how policy changes affect daily life. Parent surveys provide context, stories, and lived experiences that help bring those numbers to life.
When governments invest billions of dollars in child care, they need to understand not only what the system costs, but what it accomplishes. Parents are uniquely positioned to answer that question.
Affordability Is Working. Access Is Not.
The survey also points to a challenge that is becoming increasingly familiar across Ontario and Canada.
Affordable child care is working exactly as intended. Families want it. They need it. They value it. But as demand has increased, the shortage of available spaces has become even more visible.
AFCS reports significant waiting lists across its programs, including approximately 4,000 children waiting for 500 licensed home child care spaces. Like many operators, the organization sees firsthand the frustration families experience when affordable child care exists in theory but is unavailable in practice because there simply are not enough spaces.
This is why the conversation about child care is increasingly shifting from affordability to expansion. Parents are telling us that lower fees matter. They are also telling us that access matters just as much.
Why More Child Care Operators Should Survey Their Families
The AFCS survey raises an important question for the broader sector: what if more operators collected this information?
Every child care centre has families with stories to tell. Operators hear these stories every day—in conversations at pick-up and drop-off, during enrolment meetings, and through ongoing relationships with parents. Yet much of this information remains anecdotal and is never formally documented.
By conducting simple, anonymous surveys, operators can transform those stories into evidence. They can better understand the needs of their own communities while contributing valuable information to provincial and national conversations about child care policy.
Imagine if hundreds of child care operators across Ontario asked families similar questions. We could develop a far richer understanding of how CWELCC is affecting different communities, what barriers families continue to face, and what priorities parents believe governments should focus on next. We could identify common themes, regional differences, and emerging issues. Most importantly, we could ensure that parent voices are informing policy decisions rather than being spoken for by others.
Building a Stronger Evidence Base
The child care sector has spent decades advocating for affordable and accessible early learning and child care. Today, we have an opportunity to strengthen that advocacy with direct feedback from the families we serve.
Parent surveys do not need to be complicated. A few carefully designed questions can generate valuable insights about affordability, accessibility, workforce challenges, waitlists, and the overall impact of child care on family well-being. When collected consistently and shared broadly, this information becomes a powerful tool for advocacy.
At a time when governments are making decisions about the future of CWELCC, expansion funding, and workforce investments, evidence matters. Statistics matter. Research matters. But the experiences of families matter too.
An Invitation to the Sector
B2C2 encourages child care operators across Ontario to consider surveying their families and sharing the results. The AFCS survey demonstrates how valuable this information can be—not only for individual organizations, but for the sector as a whole.
The next phase of child care policy should be informed by the people who use the system every day. Parents have important stories to tell about what is working, what still needs improvement, and what they want governments to prioritize in the years ahead.
If we want policymakers to understand the true impact of child care, we need to ask the people who know it best.
We need to ask parents.
Read the AFCS case study and learn how parent surveys can strengthen child care advocacy.