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Legislation from the NDP will attempt to block foreign-owned big-box day care from setting up in Canada, and will push for a nation-wide framework to regulate federal funding for the industry.
The private member's bill will be debated in the House of Commons today.
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It comes as the debate over so-called big-box day care heats up amid attempts by a massive Australian child-care provider to bring its business model to Canada.
The company, ABC, has already approached small for-profit day-care centres in Ontario, Alberta and B.C., through its subsidiary 123 Busy Beaver Learning Centres, about buying out their operations, said NDP child-care critic Olivia Chow.
Chow told CTV's Canada AM that research in Australia has shown the $2.2-billion company charges higher user fees and provides lower quality of services.
"Our research shows that initially, the prices for the parents are low, and then after a while, once they have the domination of the certain area, then the fees goes up," Chow said.
She said the bill to be debated today would establish a national legislative framwork "for a universally-available, high-quality, affordable child care system across Canada."
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Kathy Graham, of the Association of Daycare Operators of Ontario, said the debate over large-scale day-care operations is not black and white.
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Bill C-303, she said, seems designed to "get rid of the private entrepreneur who has gone out and created programs," and could eventually mean less flexibility and accessibility for parents, especially in rural and remote areas where private day care has filled the gap," Graham said.
"We all need to be partners in this, and excluding parent options and decreasing accessibility is clearly not something that we should be wanting to do in this country," she added.
- reprinted from CTV.ca