Share

This report provides key highlights and analysis from the Reimagining Canada’s Care Economy Roundtable, hosted by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives on May 29, 2026. The roundtable brought together care workers, unions, civil society groups, advocates and researchers across diverse sectors—health care, immigrant settlement, child care, etc.—to discuss the common challenges confronting care workers and potential policy solutions and strategies for advancing strong public care services in Canada.

A video of the event is also available.

Why we came together

The roundtable brought together labour organizations, care sector advocates, researchers, and community organizations to discuss the shared challenges facing Canada’s care economy and to identify opportunities for collective action.

What we heard

Cross-cutting themes:

  • Chronic workforce shortages and retention issues;
  • Growing gaps in service and quality of care;
  • Expanding privatization and profitization;
  • Heightened precarity and exploitation of migrant care workers;
  • Gendered and racialized dimensions of care work;
  • Invisibility of care work and the voices of care workers in today’s policy debates;
  • Underinvestment in public care services and the workforces that power them.

Priorities for collective action:

  • Develop a comprehensive, national plan to guarantee care for all;
  • Improve job quality and workforce retention in the care economy;
  • Maintain and strengthen public and non-profit financing and delivery;
  • Embed gender and equity lens in policy and programs;
  • Recognize migrant worker rights and equity;
  • Invest in care economy data, research capacity and public reporting.

Where to next

A consistent message throughout the roundtable was that we need to change the narrative about the care economy. Recognizing care as a larger public good is a fundamental step in building a new approach that prioritizes the sustainability of life and the planet.

The CCPA is pleased to support and advance these efforts. Moving forward, we will continue to undertake research on employment and decent care work as well as convening future gatherings to share information and work on priorities for action where energies and interests align.

A new Care Economy project webpage hosts this report and the recording of the roundtable presentations. The site also features other research and analysis on Canada’s care economy.

About the authors

Katherine Scott

Katherine serves as the director for the CCPA’s gender equality and public policy work. She has worked in the community sector as a researcher, writer and advocate over the past 20 years, writing on a range of issues from social policy to inequality to funding for nonprofits.

Nathania Ebegbare

Nathania Ebegbare, Registered Social Service Worker (RSSW), is a Master of Public Policy candidate at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. Her policy and research interests include gender justice, social and health policy, and equitable access to public services. Her experience spans policy analysis, community-based research and frontline social-service work.