Code Blue asks Ottawa to stop foreign child care takeover

Arrival of 123 Busy Beavers Learning Centres signals the 'Wal-Martization' of child care in Canada

Ottawa (2 Nov. 2007) - Child care advocates are asking federal politicians to stop an international corporation from bringing big-box, for-profit child care to Canada.

Echoing a warning already sounded in British Columbia by the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE), the Code Blue for Child Care campaign
is urging the Conservative government in Ottawa to pass a private bill (C-303 - the Early Learning and Child Care Act) to discourage expansion of for-profit child care.

Introduced by Denise Savoie, NDP MP for Victoria, the bill is scheduled to come before MPs in the House of Commons on Nov. 20. All three opposition parties have joined in supporting the aims of Code Blue.

A.B.C. Learning Centres, an Australian-based corporation, has bought up and now operates child care centres in Australia, U.S., Britain, Hong Kong, Indonesia and other countries.
The parent firm earned profits of $123 million Cdn ($143 million Australian) last year and, in the space of one year, purchased 1,100 child care centres in the U.S.

Code Blue says 123 Busy Beavers Learning Centres, now operating in Canada, is closely associated with the Australian firm and in recent months has acquired "at least 30" child
care centres. It has approached child care operators in B.C., Alberta and Ontario.

"Despite the home-grown name, 123 Busy Beavers is closely linked to the world's largest child care corporation," Code Blue adds.

Olivia Chow, NDP MP for the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina, says big companies are rushing to fill "the policy vacuum" created by the failure of child care policies put
forward by the Harper government. "We don't have affordable non-profit child care," she says.

Ruby Dhalla, Liberal MP for Brampton-Springdale, says the arrival of the 123 Busy Beavers signals the "Wal-Martization" of child care in Canada. "Stephane Dion and the Liberal caucus are fully behind ensuring that we have a national early-learning and child-care strategy," she adds.

“Foreign ownership of Canadian child care will kill the dream of a pan-Canadian child care system,” says Jody Dallaire, chairperson of the Child Care Advocacy Association
of Canada. “Our children and families deserve quality, accessible, community-based child care not some gigantic off-shore warehouse operation.” NUPGE