National Caregiver Day — the first Tuesday in April — passes with little notice. Most caregivers likely miss it, not out of indifference, but because they’re too busy checking on loved ones, managing appointments and medications and showing up for work as though the pressures of providing care don’t exist.

Essential as it is, caregiving is routinely treated as invisible.

Seeing to loved ones is not peripheral to the economy; it is part of the machinery that keeps it running. It allows children to thrive, families to function, older adults to age with dignity and millions of employees to stay attached to the labour force. As Canada ages and labour shortages persist, recognizing caregiving in workplace design is no longer a perk or a compassion project — it is risk mitigation and economic necessity.

We know this firsthand. Lisa Raitt has supported her husband through young-onset Alzheimer’s while advocating for others doing the same across Canada. She has seen the emotional, logistical and financial complexity that arrives with a progressive illness and how quickly caregiving becomes a second, unpaid job. Julie Cafley’s family has navigated a similar upheaval following her husband’s diagnosis of early‑onset Parkinson’s disease.

In both cases, caring for our loved ones meant stress, strain, uncertainty and the constant negotiation between professional responsibility and personal obligation, a long‑term commitment that strains our families,........

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