More than 300,000 Canadian families faced child-care access barriers last year that delayed a parent’s return to work, underscoring the urgent need to expand child-care access.This was despite other tangible and important gains related to Canada-wide child care — the affordability of care from lower parent fees (for people who secured child-care spaces) and increases in GDP as more mothers entered the labour force.These findings are detailed in a new Centre for the Study of Living Standards report authored by Alisaleh Shariati, the first author of this story. The study estimates that lower fees helped increase employment among mothers of young children by about 29,000 by the end of 2025. That added about $2.7 billion in direct GDP per year.While the affordability and economic gains of Canada-wide early learning and child care programs are real, a much bigger gain could be realized by addressing the availability problem. In 2025, about 332,200 families had child-care access problems that delayed a parent’s return to work. This included 33.9 per cent of families that were using child care but still experiencing access difficulties and 43 per cent of families that were not using child care. If half of all parents who faced access problems were able to return to paid employment once those barriers were removed, the GDP gain could reach about $15.6 billion. Even under a more cautious estimate, the gain would be about $10.9 billion.These numbers illustrate what Canada is leaving on the table when parents want to work but cannot access child care. The message is simple and clear: lower fees have increased demand, but the supply of usable spaces has not kept pace.Cheaper care, not always availableThe Canada-wide early learning and child care system was launched in 2021. The plan aimed to cut fees, move toward an average of $10 a day and create 250,000 regulated child-care spaces. Parliament later reinforced those goals through the Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act that frames child care as important for families, gender equality and the economy.Canada’s $10-a-day child-care plan has done something rare in an expensive economy that emerged in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has made a basic service much cheaper. For families who already have a regulated child-care space, lower fees can make a real difference. They ease monthly bills, help parents return to paid work and make staying in a job feel more worthwhile. But for many parents, the problem has shifted. Child care may be cheaper, but it’s still not always available.Some have proposed that child-care vouchers, a direct payment to parents to spend as they choose that could cut bureaucratic red tape and enable better access. The Centre for the Study of Living Standards report didn’t address vouchers; other child-care policy experts point to research showing vouchers don’t support inclusion or equity and dont’t create a workforce or build child care in access deserts.Increased challenges finding a spaceStatistics Canada data reveals that for families with children aged five and under who were not using child care, the share of those reporting difficulty finding a spot jumped from 19.7 per cent in 2022 to 30.2 per cent in 2025.These access problems have impacts beyond being frustrating for families. They change work and study decisions. Statistics Canada data also show that parents who struggle to find suitable care may work fewer hours, change work or study schedules, use leave, turn down work, pay more than planned or delay returning to work. Read more: Children across Canada deserve a professional early childhood education workforce A licensed space only helps a parent if a centre can staff it. Even then, it doesn’t help a nurse, retail worker or food-service worker if care is only available during standard office hours. Lowering fees does not help a rural parent, newcomer family or lone parent if the nearest available spot is too far away or the waiting list is too long due to shortages of educators and assistants working in centres. Bolster the child-care workforceThe first step to address these issues is to bolster the child-care workforce.Canada cannot expand child care without enough qualified early childhood educators and assistants. That means wages that make the work financially viable. It also means better benefits, pensions, paid leave, professional development opportunities and more training seats in colleges. Read more: Children across Canada deserve a professional early childhood education workforce Immigration and credential-recognition pathways matter too, especially where providers already rely on internationally trained workers.Workforce policy should be treated as economic infrastructure. When educators leave because wages are too low or the work is too unstable, families lose access. When families lose access, parents cut hours, delay returning to work or leave jobs altogether.Ask more practical questionsThe second step is to build new staffed spaces where the bottlenecks are worst.National average fees do not tell us enough. Governments need to ask more practical questions. Who is getting a space? Where is that space located? Is it staffed by qualified educators? Can families use it during the hours they actually work?That requires better public reporting and accountability measures. Governments should track operational spaces, not just licensed spaces. They should track wait lists and who is being served by income, geography and family type. Public funding should be tied to public goals, including staffed spaces, quality, equitable access and accountability. Read more: Ottawa’s $10-a-day child care promise should heed Québec’s insights about balancing low fees with high quality Québec’s low-fee child-care system has shown for decades that affordable care can support women’s employment and long-term career trajectories and pay for itself. It has also shown that quality, staffing and equitable access matter for children’s outcomes later in life, and that low fees alone are not enough if families still cannot find care that works for them.Canada has made major progress on the cost of child care. That is a real achievement. But the next phase is about improving access and quality. The $10-a-day promise was not only about saving families money; it was also about supporting parents to work, improving children’s opportunities and strengthening the economy.Lower fees were a critical first step. Finishing the job means ensuring families can actually find high quality child-care spaces.Alisaleh Shariati works for the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS). The YMCA financially supported the CSLS research report cited in this article.Emis Akbari receives funding from the Atkinson Foundation, the Lawson Foundation, the Waltons Trust, and the Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation.