A new report suggests around 776,000 Canadian children live in areas of the country devoid of available daycare spaces.
The study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, being released today, says 44% of all school-aged children live in so-called "child care deserts'' where the number of children outstrips available spaces in licensed homes and centres.
The study didn't take into account unlicensed daycare because there is no exhaustive list of the spaces Canada-wide.
Researchers found cities in provinces that take a more active role in regulating child care were more likely to have broader coverage, compared with provinces which let the market dictate prices and locations of spaces.
As a result, the report concludes, fewer than five per cent of children in Charlottetown and Quebec cities were under-served, compared with Saskatoon, where every child lived in a child care desert.
Toronto's child care spaces were concentrated around the Yonge Street corridor heading north to Highway 401, but beyond that stretch, coverage rates dropped, meaning parents may be doing a double commute -- to and from daycare, and then to and from the office.
But on the island of Montreal, there are enough spaces for the number of children and the same was true in the surrounding areas.