MP touts tax-incentive program
The Daily News (Kamloops)
09 Jan 2007
Source: The Daily News

A $100 monthly cheque from Ottawa to parents of young children will not shrink in September with elimination of an existing federal program, Kamloops MP Betty Hinton insisted Monday.

"We made it clear last year we would give the choice to parents," Hinton said, defending the decision to cancel a Liberal program that saw millions given to the provinces to provide new spaces and universal subsidies.

"Parents are ahead," Hinton said, noting the $100-a-month benefit to parents with children under six years.

Kamloops MLA Claude Richmond said the province will continue some programs, despite the shortfall from the Conservative government.

"The current federal government changed direction on child care. We stepped in to fill the gap."

That means parents of families with less than $38,000 a year income will continue receiving substantial subsidies.

The province will not cover a rollback in the child-care operating funding program of about $2 a day paid directly to child-care providers. It will make up the shortfall only until June.

"It's $40 a month," Richmond said. "At the same time the universal child-care benefit is $100. It's not as though they'll (parents) be out of pocket."

Because the $100-a-month federal benefit is deemed taxable by Ottawa, the net benefit to parents after elimination of the day-care operating grant could be as little as $20 a month.

B.C.'s minister of state for childcare, Linda Reid, also warned new provincial capital funding won't be available "until Ottawa provides details of this plan and how it intends to fund the initiative."

Hinton said the Tory program to encourage businesses to create new spaces through a $10,000 in tax incentive in return for each child-care space they add will boost numbers, including in Kamloops. The measure came into effect this month.

"It's going to help make it happen. I've met with a number of child-care groups who are interested."