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EXCERPTS
MIKE DUFFY: Well, tomorrow is International Women's Day, and that means that a lot of issues of particular concern to women are going to be on the news agenda. Diane Finley is Canada's new Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, and she's taken time out of her busy day to come and join us today.
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Everybody has been heard this debate about this super family allowance plan that you've got coming. Already a number of people are out saying, no, no, it's a terrible thing. And I gather Carolyn Bennett and some of the Liberals are going to demonstrate against you and against your proposals tomorrow. Can you sort of set us straight as to what it is the government is planning on this issue?
DIANE FINLEY (Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development): During the campaign we came out with a three part plan. The first is to help young families get the child care that they need. Not just daycare, but child care. And we'll do that by giving them $1,200 a year directly to the parents, not to the politicians, for each child under the age of six. And this will help them if they work nights, for example, and they need to get in a babysitter, or for stay at home parents who need to go to the doctor and can't take three little toddlers with them. So we're going to deliver on that directly to the parents. Secondly, we're phasing out the current program that the Liberals put in place, and we're actually extending it because of our commitment to child care, to the seven provinces that haven't signed on, along with the territories. And the third is that next year we'll be bringing in our plan to provide incentives to produce 125,000 new daycare and child care places.
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DUFFY: Now what about the argument that we're hearing from a number of groups and a number of provinces that say well we've already committed the money that the Liberals had promised us. Isn't there some kind of obligation on the new government to carry other the old government's plan?
FINLEY: Well the old government's plan actually didn't have any guarantees going forward. It was a five year plan with no guarantee beyond any one year funding.
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And then the government and the provinces, each had the option to opt out on a year's notice. We've given 14 months notice, February 20th. I sent a letter to the provincial ministers advising them that we were giving them the notice, more than 12 months, and that we would be providing the funding right through to March 31st '07.
DUFFY: So is it your contention then that people have closed down, or whatever, and say it's all because of those terrible feds in Ottawa that in fact this isn't your fault, at least in the next year or 14 months.
FINLEY: No, we're giving them the money they expected. And many are getting money that they hadn't any reason to expect. So this is a good thing. It allows them to go ahead with their plans, keeping in mind that there will be a different process after next March.
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- reprinted from CTV