Statement der Care Economy Initiative, 22.4.2021 (engl. Originalfassung)
If COVID-19 has taught us nothing else, it is that we need a new approach to caring for each other in this country. And there is no better time to raise these issues than in the months leading up to an election. We need to insist on an alternative path, one based on a new vision of the role of care in Canada.
The chronic failure to adequately deal with care issues reflects several assumptions that must be challenged.
WRONG ASSUMPTION 1
Care issues are not like the crucial sectors that require government support because they drive the economy, sectors such as resources, finance and manufacturing, gas, and mining.
This assumption ignores the real contributions of the care sector as an economic driver. The care sector is critical ‘social infrastructure’ that needs public capital expenditure and other public support, much in the way that utilities and transportation do. Public child care centres, long term care facilities, public pharmacare, and extensive community-appropriate care supports and services for all Indigenous communities are some of the most obvious examples of deficits in public infrastructure.
These are all areas that have significant potential for providing economic stability while meeting current care needs and improving future outcomes and potential. Moreover, they are central to maintaining a healthy labour force.
WRONG ASSUMPTION 2
Governments cannot afford to provide for care needs, especially given an aging population.
Clearly there can be enough money when it is considered necessary, as the spending in response to COVID-19 and earlier economic crises demonstrates. How much we spend is a matter of values. Not spending on care issues is both morally wrong and damaging to the economy.
WRONG ASSUMPTIONS 3
Care work can be undertaken either by unpaid work in the home, mostly done by women, or by paid workers, also mostly women who are largely an underpaid labour force that relies disproportionately on recent immigrant, migrant workers, and racialized women.
While care workers, both paid and unpaid, have been heroic during the pandemic, and lauded for their work, several issues need to be understood. A significant one is that the conditions of work simply do not attract enough workers. Among other things, this underlines the need for access to status for migrants who perform much of care work and are more exposed to exploitation. Another is that unpaid work simply cannot take up the slack, even if there are relatives and friends willing to do so.
Planning for a post-pandemic recovery needs to build resilience in the economy so that insights gained from the pandemic are not lost when vaccines are widespread and the present crisis diminishes. In care homes, for example, declining death rates in the wake of vaccines do not mean the sector is safe for those who live, work and visit in them. Radically improved care is crucial for families supporting those needing special care, and for people who need distinct services.
This is the critically urgent case for Indigenous communities, migrants, people with disabilities, and those with addictions. Governments must also act to support young people whose care and education have suffered during COVID-19, and to support parents struggling to find affordable, quality care for their children. The future requires access to high quality educational and training opportunities, from early learning and childcare to post-secondary education and skills upgrading.
IT’S TIME TO INVEST IN THE CARE ECONOMY
For the past year, our governments emphasized that we are all in this together. We would add that to get out of this together we must care for each other. We need federal leadership to carry these hard-earned pandemic lessons into a recovery by investing in a care economy that supports both those who need and those who provide care.
Das vollständige Statement finden Sie hier.