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Stephen Harper dealt a death blow to early learning and child care in Monday's budget with no emphasis on quality, no standards and no vision.
This budget item of $250 million, which is one quarter of the former Liberal government's $1 billion plan, is meant to create spaces. It follows on the $100-a-month cheque to parents, which buys three to four days of child care a month at the most. It also follows tax incentives for business to create spaces, when, in fact, the private sector in Canada has shown almost no interest in accepting Harper's incentives to do so.
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[Former Minister of Social Development Ken] Dryden worked tirelessly across Canada to develop a $1 billion national program to reflect individual differences province by province and in the territories. Beginning with Saskatchewan and Manitoba on April 29, 2005 until Nov. 24, 2005, each of the 10 provinces signed agreements with the Government of Canada to move forward on early learning and child care.
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But that's history now and meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Canadian families cannot find quality child care.
Is this good enough? The answer is No! And we're not alone in our disapproval. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, in its report "Starting Strong II" ranked Canada last among 14 countries for spending on early learning and child care programs.
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The Senate of Canada is taking action through the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, which will examine the state of early learning and child care in Canada. We will call witnesses and produce a report with answer as to why Canada is in such a dismal position internationally.
Is Canada up to the challenge of providing world-class early learning and child care opportunities to all of our children? The answer is yes! Yet, Stephen Harper ignored the challenge, ignored the facts and continues to shortchange Canada's children. We say shame!
* The Honourable Marilyn Trenholme Counsell is Senator for New Brunswick. The Honourable Jim Munson is Senator for Ontario.
- reprinted from the Daily Gleaner