Day-care funding unfair
Trail Daily Times
7 Apr 06
By Shannon Plamondon

Under Prime Minister Steven Harper's radical new child-care plan, $1,200 will go to every family with a child under six so that they can spend it as they see fit. Sounds great, doesn't it? As a stay-at-home parent, I thought, "Wow, at last a policy that recognizes the value of what I do."

However, before getting too excited about my well-deserved bonus, I had to wonder "Where is this money coming from?" After all, this government is not actually putting more money into the budget for child care.

To cover the costs of this new plan, the Conservatives will be scrapping the national day-care subsidy program. What this means is that low-income families who need help covering their day-care costs will be out of luck. Also, fewer licensed day-care spots will be available so that working parents will be left scrambling to find alternatives.

Much as I would appreciate the extra money to raise my children, it would be hard to spend it guilt-free knowing that I had received it at the expense of struggling single parents. With their $1,200 infusion, a full-time working parent could cover, at most, two months of day-care costs.

For someone on minimum wage, they would do better to stay home on welfare. Is that what we want for our society? Do we want the single moms of our nation to be forced out of the workplace and onto social assistance?

I always believed that one of the roles of government was to assist those in need. If indeed that is the case, then it hardly makes sense to give the same child-care allowance to a child with two doctors as parents that you would give to the child with only one parent who works at 7-11.

Equally of concern is the shortage of licenced child-care spaces. Limited availability of day-care spaces is already forcing some parents to seek less-qualified care providers. Cutting funding to the provinces for day care will only exacerbate the problem.

As the aunt of a child who suffered brain damage due to a shaking that occurred in an overcrowded day care, I can't stress enough the importance of having regulated facilities accessible to all parents.

Truly if we care about supporting children, we will work to ensure that all of them get an equal start at this critical point in their development. Please write our MP (Alex Atamanenko) to let him know that you believe in providing solid day-care programs for all children.