The feminized and racialized nature of care work means it is often dismissed as less valuable, when it is the backbone of the economy
Ontario’s care economy is in crisis.
People are struggling to access healthcare, seniors care, childcare, disability services, affordable housing and other vital care programs. Caregivers – both paid and unpaid – are under severe stress, pushed to their limits trying to deliver care in a system that fails to meet their needs.
The care economy is at a breaking point and unless governments chart a new path that puts care at the centre of public policy to build a “careFULL Ontario,” the crisis will only deepen, jeopardizing not only individual well-being, but also our health, social and economic systems.
Ontario Nonprofit Network recently released a new report evaluating Ontario’s care economy. We found that care policies are weak, outdated and do not go far enough to meet care needs.
While the report focuses on Ontario, the problems we uncovered, and the solutions needed to address them, are relevant across Canada.
The care economy includes all of the labour – both paid and unpaid – that goes into meeting the physical, psychological and emotional needs of individuals, families and communities. It is delivered through the public, private and non-profit sectors and within households.
The care economy relies on women – predominantly Black, racialized, immigrant and migrant women – who do the lion’s share of unpaid family caregiving and paid care work, often at barely livable wages. The feminized nature of care work means it is often dismissed as less valuable than traditional male work, when in reality it is the backbone of the Ontario – and Canadian – economy.
Paid care jobs generate over 13 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Statistics Canada estimates the economic value of unpaid care work at between $517 and $860 billion. Yet, as the report makes clear, the care economy is in a precarious state. It is underfunded, under-resourced and not keeping pace with care needs.
Care systems are operating at unsustainable levels as core cost drivers – including population growth and age, inflation and poverty and inequality – rise while investments in the care sector fail to keep pace.
Most of the care economy in Ontario is non-profit driven. However, decades of public policy decisions advancing privatization and scaling back funding have put increasing pressure on non-profit organizations to provide care for an increasingly complex client base with stagnant budgets. It’s also forced unpaid caregivers to fill ever-widening gaps.
Policies are also failing to address housing precarity and the high cost of living, with recent housing reforms threatening to further erode tenant protections and increase homelessness.
Deregulation, privatization and inadequate funding of care-enabling infrastructure – like safe drinking water, internet connectivity and public transit – have further exacerbated the strains on care workers already stretched thin.
The growing privatization of care services, including in childcare and long-term care, are creating two-tiered care systems that undermine access and affordability.
We are also seeing punishment and criminalization increasingly used to address care needs after appropriate care services – like safe consumption sites – have been closed, increasing the risk of incarceration, institutionalization or death for those most in need.
Weak employment legislation – including employment standards laws that do not reflect the expansion of care work into the gig economy – leaves care workers vulnerable to unsafe or poor working conditions, workplace abuse and exploitation.
Building a healthy care economy will require government to put care at the centre of public policy.
This includes investing in public and non-profit care systems – including primary care and home care – and repealing legislation that criminalizes people with unmet care needs.
It means taking profit out of care by ending privatization, prohibiting deregulation, redirecting public money into public-sector services and moving toward long-term core funding models.
It requires care workers to have decent working conditions. This includes paying competitive wages, modernizing and strengthening employment standards legislation, prioritizing preventive workplace safety measures and granting permanent resident status to migrant workers to reduce vulnerability to exploitation.
There must also be better conditions for unpaid care – including measuring the impact care policies have on unpaid caregivers and implementing a basic income for them.
Care-enabling physical infrastructure must also be prioritized – including investing in rent-geared-to-income housing, tenant protections and free transit services for care workers and others in need.
It is urgent that government change course and put care at the centre of policy – building a “careFULL Ontario” that benefits people – especially women – while strengthening our health, social and economic systems.
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