Looking past the cheers for the Tories
Prince George Citizen
17 Jul 2006
By: Todd Whitcombe, professor at University Northern BC

EXCERPT

I spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow living in Calgary during the late 1980s where I participated in a federal election, Alberta-style.

It was an eye-opening experience....

Fast-forward some 18 years, and we have the new Conservative party making more election promises that are almost as bad. I suspect that some people were even cheering. And the Conservatives are going to drive home these bad ideas regardless of what anyone thinks.

During the last federal election, there was much made of the Conservative party's plan to give each and every Canadian $1,200 for child care. Or something like that, wasn't it? There was a lot of confusion over the message, but that is what the people that I talked to thought was going to happen.

But no, it wasn't $1,200 to each Canadian. It was per child under the age of five. That was the real promise. The ideological principle is that people know how to best spend their money when it comes to child care.

"Three kids under five? Vote Conservative and we give you $3,600 to spend on their care as you see fit." That's what those cute TV commercials showing Stephen Harper having his nose tweaked by a precocious child seemed to say. And it sounds good, doesn't it?

Of course, reality has now set in. The promise is not what it seems.

And you and I are stuck footing the bill for a program that will only benefit those that are very well off.

Why do I say this? Analysis of this government's announced child care allowance program has shown that the benefit is not really $1,200. Not even close, unless you are single-earner family earning more than $200,000.

Indeed, because it is a taxable benefit, it will increase the taxable income of anyone receiving it. It will replace the Canada Child Tax Benefit's young child supplement. And it will shift eligibility for a number of programs, including GST rebates. The net result is that for a single parent earning $30,000 per year, the $1,200 benefit will really be $301. That is a whopping $25.08 per month to help with child-care costs that typically run in the range of $600 to $700 per month.

Don't get me wrong; $25.08 per month is better than nothing. But a program that sees more spaces created in child-care facilities and subsidies to those that truly need the services -- such as a single parent trying to raise children on $30,000 -- is what we actually need.

This is what our governments should deliver. We should definitely not be cheering while they hand us $1,200 of our own money, only to take most of it back.