Women Call For New Budget Priorities
Ad-Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights
Pre-2008 Budget

OTTAWA, Feb. 24 /CNW Telbec/ - Women across the country are calling for new government priorities that reflect the realities they face, not the Conservative cuts to programs that have characterized government action in the past year.

"Budgets are all about choices," says Pamela Cross, Director of Advocacy and Public Policy for YWCA. "The federal government can choose to continue down the same destructive path that favours cuts to critical programs and funding of questionable wars, or it can choose balanced funding that responds to real needs of Canadian women and their families."

A report from TD Economics released before the 2007 economic update estimated that the federal surplus would be $14.5 billion in 2007-08, rising to $27.5 billion by 2012-13. In spite of the nation-wide housing crisis, the struggle parents face in finding affordable childcare, and the rising cost of post-secondary education, the Harper government has made the decision to whittle away the surplus through massive tax-cuts ($60 billion over 5 years),an aggressive debt reduction plan ($10 billion), and huge increases in military spending ($7.2 billion in Afghanistan alone).

Any new tax cuts revealed in this budget will likely require even more cuts to critical program spending. These measures have eaten into surpluses, putting critical programs at even greater risk in the event of an economic slowdown.

It is clear that Canadian women are being left out in the cold by the federal government's current strategy. Instead of choosing more of the same approach that ignores the well-known realities of women, the Harper government would do well to finally set the kind of budget priorities that would deliver substantial benefits to Canadian women and their families:

- Affordable housing. With 1.5 million Canadian households (many with children) at risk of homelessness, the time for a National Housing Policy with supporting federal funding is long overdue.

- High-quality, affordable, accessible child care. Over the last three years, more than $2 billion in federal child-care funding has flowed into a virtual accountability void. Less than 20% of Canada's children and families have access to regulated early learning and child care services. Fees have gone up and families are struggling to find care for their children in the current patchwork system. The government must restore multi-year federal funding for childcare through dedicated capital transfers to community-based, not-for-profit childcare services to assure that child care is available for all children and families that need or want it.

- Accessible post-secondary education. ….

- A commitment to women's equality …. This government refuses to acknowledge the heavy costs of tax cuts and military spending….

It's time for women's voices to be heard and for families to become the true priority in government spending - what's good for women is good for everyone.

[MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS include: Action ontarienne contre la violence faite aux femmes; Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne; Canadian Council of Muslim Women; Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs; Canadian Federation of Students; Canadian Federation of University Women; Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action; Canadian Labour Congress;Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women; Canadian Women's Community Economic Development Council; Canadian Women's Foundation;Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada ; Fédération des femmes du Québec; MATCH International; National Association of Women and the Law; National Council of Women of Canada; New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women; Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses; Oxfam Canada; POWER Camp National Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Newfoundland and Labrador; Regroupement provincial des maisons d'hébergement et de transition pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale; The Women Are Angry; Transition House Association of Nova Scotia; Women's Inter-Church Council of Canada; Women's Space; YWCA Canada]