$2-billion child-care vacuum; Feds can't say for sure where funding went
The Daily Courier -- Kelowna
May 14, 2007
EXCERPT

OTTAWA -- More than $2 billion in federal child-care funding has flowed into a virtual accountability void in the last three years.

Officials in Ottawa have few clues as to how well the cash was spent by most provinces since 2004. Provincial reports are months or even years overdue -- when they're provided at all.

It's a blind spot that critics loudly warned about when past Liberal governments first started funding a national child-care system that was seen by many as encroaching on provincial social-policy turf.

Tracking hundreds of millions of dollars across Canada is like "wandering through a maze blindfolded," says Monica Lysack, executive director of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada.

"There is an increasing lack of accountability for the transfer of federal funds," she said in an interview. "It was a problem under the Liberal government and is getting worse under this government."

Ottawa likes to say it's up to the provinces to publicly explain how they spend their money to their own constituents. But Lysack says such reports are outdated by the time they're finally released, or are missing altogether. "It's ridiculous."

A chart compiled by the association says reports for 2004-05 have still not been filed by Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Alberta, the Yukon or Nunavut.

The federal government's own child-care reports are missing for 2004-05 and 2005-06 "for a number of reasons," said Glennie Graham, director of child and youth policy for Human Resources....

Part of the problem is a glaring lack of consistent information gathering. National statistics are often sketchy at best.

Just five of 10 provinces reported on federal cash for the fiscal year 2004-05, and only Saskatchewan and British Columbia have filed for 2005-06, Lysack says.

Nonetheless, another $950 million was transferred from Ottawa to provincial and territorial governments in the last fiscal year. Senior officials with the federal Human Resources Department confirmed the missing data.

Nevertheless, "every indication is they're committed to child care," Shawn Tupper, director general of social policy development, said of the provinces.

"And we have seen growth," he told the Commons human resources committee last week...

Despite some improvements, families in many parts of the country -- especially British Columbia and Ontario -- face long waits for quality child care, Lysack says.

There is also confusion about federal cash that has been transferred but not yet spent on early learning, she added.

"Parents are entitled to answers."...