Tories failing miserably on child care
Prince George Citizen
11 Nov 2006
Opinion -- By Sarah Boyd-Noel

Re: Canada lacking in early child care (story, Oct. 26)

The article reported that Louise Zimanyi, with the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development (in UNESCO report), stated clearly that Canada is failing miserably in its early-childhood policy and points the finger squarely, and with contempt, at Harper's Conservative government.

The current Conservative government is so fixated on living up to its "five core priorities" that it is not willing to listen to other points of view, even if they are sensible. Case in point: child care.

An Environics poll this summer indicated 76 per cent of Canadians support a national affordable child-care program created by the former Liberal government.

Instead, the Harper Conservatives are cancelling the program despite federal-provincial agreements in principle. Instead, the Conservatives have implemented payments of $1,200 per year per child under six. The same poll indicated only 35 per cent of Canadians support the Conservatives' new benefit. In addition, it should be noted the benefit is not targeted specifically to lower income families or specifically to child-care expenses, and does not create child-care spaces.

Some readers may not be aware this new benefit is taxable. In fact, families in the lower middle-income range will take home the least -- as little as $301 per year per child under six. This is laughable when one considers full-time regulated, care can cost $9,000 to $12,000 per year, per child.

Also, 10 per cent of people (e.g. homeless people) who are not registered with the Child Tax Credit will need to apply for the new benefit (who will help them with that?).

And yes, our elected officials will say we have a debt to pay down. When, in fact, the debt, as a percentage of Canada's economic output, is now at its lowest level in 24 years (and has shrunk by $81.4 billion from $562.9 billion in 1996-97). It is a shame to consider the reduction of one percentage point on the GST will amount to a net loss of $9 billion over two years to our government coffers, when at the same time the former Liberal plan to build a national early-learning and child-care system would have cost $5 billion over five years.

If the current child-care agreement could be extended beyond March 31, 2007, this would allow further expansion of child-care spaces, decreased child-care fees for parents, decreased wait lists and quality child-care choices for families that really need it.