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EXCERPTS
All Canadians with very young children will receive monthly cheques from the new child-care program -- a plan that will be particularly popular for families with one spouse not earning an income.
As was predicted, wealthy single-earner families stand to gain more than those in which both parents work but make less money.
Beginning in July, the new Universal Child Care Benefit, which until the release of the budget yesterday had been called the Choice in Child Care benefit, will pay parents $100 a month for every child under 6.
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Monica Lysack of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada said the cuts to regulated care are deeper than her group had expected because $25-million the Liberals promised for aboriginal child care and $25-million for accountability measures are not included.
"A family allowance is great, but to call it child care is an insult," Ms. Lysack said. "When the numbers are analyzed, it's like an allowance you would give your children."
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The structure of the new plan means that rich families with a stay-at-home parent will see a greater increase to their bottom line because the money will be taxable off the income of the lowest-paid spouse.
And richer families will ultimately feel the gain more than poorer ones because, by June, 2007, those who currently receive the young-child supplement of the National Child Tax Benefit will find that it has been rolled into the new allowance.
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- reprinted from the Globe and Mail