For a couple of years, I’ve been using some of my research time at the University of B.C. to provide evidence that the squeeze on the generation raising young kids costs the Canadian business community billions. After giving a number of presentations where business colleagues smiled, nodded gently, but resisted engaging, I approached Warren Beach at Sierra Systems, asking whether he believed my findings?” A no BS kind of guy, Warren replied “As a CA, I’ve seen many people inflate estimates, so I’m skeptical.” But as a stalwart citizen, remaining skeptical wasn’t an option for Warren. Instead, he agreed to devote some of his time, and the time of two CA colleagues, to support my team in refining the estimates.
A landmark report by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Report Card 9: The Children Left Behind, has found that children in many rich nations suffer greater inequality than children in other industrialized nations. Canada performs at a mediocre level overall, but lags far behind in equality of children’s material well-being which includes family income and other basic resources and conditions necessary for child development — placing 17th of 24 countries.
