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Bernard Lord's comment that "what may work for downtown Toronto may not work for Plaster Rock, N.B.," glosses over the fact that the first province to sign a bilateral agreement on child care with the federal government was one with a large rural population -- Manitoba.
A comparison of Manitoba and New Brunswick's child care spending does not do much for Mr. Lord's position.
Manitoba currently spends more than twice as much as New Brunswick per regulated child care space. The difference here is not geography, but a commitment to high-quality early learning and child care. A national child care plan is not about a cookie-cutter approach but about ensuring that all Canadian families, no matter where they live, have access to high-quality, affordable child care.
For Mr. Lord to use New Brunswick's rural families to play political games is dreadful. He talks about "choice," but that means little when no high-quality options exist.
- reprinted from the Globe and Mail