About 776,000 young children in Canada — 44 per cent — are living in “child care deserts,” or in communities where licensed care is scarce, according to a new report.

Access to child care varies widely across the country and even within provinces and individual cities, according to the report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, being released Thursday.

In Brampton, Kitchener and Saskatoon, there is less than one licensed space for every four children not yet in school, the report says. Meanwhile, in Charlottetown and in most cities in Quebec, there are spots for 70 per cent of young children.

Child care deserts are defined as areas where three or more children have access to just one licensed spot, irrespective of fees.

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The report, which for the first time in Canada maps the availability of licensed child care by postal code with the number of non-school-age children, highlights the gaps in a service crucial for women’s workforce participation and key to addressing child poverty, says author David Macdonald, senior economist at the left-leaning think tank.

“Canadians should have access to affordable child care near where they live, no matter where they live,” says the report. “Our research into child care deserts shows this is not the case in far too much of the country.”

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The analysis comes at a time when Ottawa has committed $1.7 billion over 10 years to expand licensed child care for Indigenous and low-income families across Canada and when provinces such at British Columbia have committed to fund a “universal” system where affordable, high quality licensed care is available for every family that wants it.

“Most of the political focus until now has been on reducing high fees, but this report shows why it is also important to tackle the problem of access,” Macdonald says.

Toronto parent Jennifer Chan says her family is a “living example” of the report. In her east-Toronto neighbourhood of Leslieville, just 39 per cent to 46 per cent of children under age 3 have access to licensed care.

Chan and her husband Conan O’Connor moved from downtown in March 2016, shortly after their son Harrison was born, believing the area was more child-friendly. There are certainly more families, she says, but not nearly enough child care.

“I put my name on every daycare wait list in the area and nobody called me back,” she says.

To hedge her bets, Chan put her name on wait lists in her old downtown neighbourhood, where 60 per cent of young children have access to licensed care, according to the report.

Even then, she didn’t secure a space at the St. Lawrence Co-operative Daycare until five days before her September 2016 return to work in a marketing job on Queens Quay.

“It’s difficult to have to go out of my neighbourhood to take my son to child care,” says Chan. And with a second child due in October and Harrison starting school in 2019, the daily daycare dash will likely get worse, she adds.

In a city with the worst commute in North America, parents should not also have to juggle child care along the way, Macdonald notes.

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“This report shows why plans to expand child care in Ontario are desperately needed,” says Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. “It shows we can’t just leave it to the market. And it shows the importance of public planning to ensure new spaces are going where they are needed.”

Ontario’s previous Liberal government in 2016 committed to creating 100,000 new licensed spaces by 2021, a promise now in doubt with the election of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives, she adds.

Ford’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Ontario has eight cities where 40 per cent or more children are living in child care deserts, including Brampton (95 per cent), Kitchener (87 per cent), Hamilton (71 per cent), Windsor (67 per cent), London (66 per cent), Mississauga (65 per cent), Markham (44 per cent) and Toronto (40 per cent), according to the report.

Mapping child care by neighbourhood is important for parents because it helps them find care close to home. But it is also helpful for policy-makers because it can guide funding and support to areas most in need, Macdonald argues in the report.

It is particularly true in provinces that are trying to lower fees, he says. “Without a fuller picture of child care coverage rates, provinces risk simply creating long waiting lists in low-coverage areas as fees fall,” he says in the report.

Although Macdonald looked for links between household income and licensed spaces, he found daycare deserts in both rich and poor neighbourhoods.

“A lower coverage rate may be due to more parents choosing to stay home with children or it may be due to more parents being forced to stay home because they can’t find a space,” the report notes.

In some high-income neighbourhoods, parents may be choosing nannies instead of child care, he adds.

The research shows policy-makers need to address both price and availability if they want to ensure equitable access to licensed child care, says Martha Friendly of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit.

“Macdonald’s innovative data analysis shows how many families lack even basic access to an available space,” Friendly says. “And it illustrates how valuable better data could be as a planning tool if Canada were to begin in earnest to develop a systemic approach to child care.”