Layton proposes major childcare program
By: STEVE LAMBERT
The Canadian Press
September 17, 2008

TORONTO — Jack Layton delved into Play-Doh at a noisy daycare centre Wednesday, promising an NDP government would spend billions of dollars on a national child-care program and enshrine it in law.

The NDP would start with $1.4-billion in the first year of a mandate to create 150,000 spaces across the country, the leader said as tots and toddlers wandered around his podium.

“And as finances permit, we're going to steadily build on that funding until the full program is phased in,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to create a space for every child who needs it.”

…. Party officials later said the annual funding would reach $2.2-billion by Year 4. But that would only pay for 220,000 spaces, making a truly universal program still a work in progress.

Mr. Layton also said he'd pass a law to ensure the program's survival, similar to the way the Canada Health Act governs medicare. The law would require provinces to follow standards of care and show where federal dollars would be spent.

The idea of a national day-care program has been kicked around for years. Advocates say a nationally subsidized child-care program would help working parents make ends meet and ensure that kids are in a high-quality learning environment.

But detractors say the idea is too expensive and unworkable.

“I'm not surprised the NDP is deliberately being vague about the final cost of this type of program,” Adam Taylor, acting director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said from Ottawa.

“It's not affordable; otherwise it would have been done by Liberal governments who promised it years ago.”

The federation estimates a national program similar to Quebec's much-heralded plan, under which parents pay a set fee of $7 a day and the province chips in $1.6-billion a year, would cost Ottawa and the provinces as much as $40-billion….

The Conservatives replaced that program with funding and tax breaks for businesses and community groups aimed at creating 125,000 spaces, although critics say not many were created. The Tories also introduced $100-a-month cheques for parents of kids under six, which Mr. Layton says he would maintain.

Mr. Layton argues a national program is achievable. Like many of his campaign promises to date, he says the day-care program would be funded by reversing some of the $50-billion in tax cuts he says the Conservatives have given corporations.

“Canada spends less on early childhood education and car services than 13 other countries, including the United States,” he said. “Canada can't afford not to invest in our children.”