Harper plan not enough for family to pay for child care
The Daily News (Nanaimo)
25 Apr 2006
Opinion, by June Ross

THE EDITOR:

So Stephen Harper is daring opposition provinces to stop his so-called child-care initiative. I hope they call his bluff.

He has absolutely no mandate to kill existing child-care agreements with the provinces as they signed deals with the federal government and not with the Liberal party. Only 36% of voters cast their ballots for the Conservatives and, according to an Environics poll, just 41% of those voted for Harper's policies. That's just 15% of voters. That is not a mandate for radical change.

His program is a cruel joke. The poorest familes will get a small fraction of the $1,200 after taxes and other benefit clawbacks. According to the Caledon Institute, a couple with one child and an annual income of $30,000 will see that $1,200 become $838 after taxes and $448 after benefit clawbacks.

If there are no child-care spaces available, the money cannot be used for reliable, safe child care.

Even if spaces are there, in the absence of a national program, the money is inadequate as current child-care costs are at least $600 a month

The Liberals, NDP and the Bloc -- with about 85% of the vote -- have a duty to stop Harper and save the child-care deals as well as the program of universality that has been the mainstay of a proposed child-care program.