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Former prime minister Paul Martin says the federal Conservatives have abandoned any commitment to early childhood development, mainly by chopping the first national early learning and child care program, which was instituted by the Liberals.
"The program was to provide the moneys to train child care workers to make sure that early childhood learning was vibrant," the former Liberal prime minister told the Telegraph-Journal in an interview.
"It lasted for a year and the Conservative government pulled the plug on it. It's a tragedy that it was reneged on."
"They're not doing enough on (early childhood education) because they don't believe in it."
Martin's shot at the Stephen Harper government comes just days before he joins early childhood development experts at a major conference at Mount Allison University in Sackville.
The conference, hosted by the Council for Early Child Development, runs Wednesday through Friday and will feature experts from Sweden, Australia, the United States, Latin America and from across Canada.
The goal is to offer ideas for governments to use in tackling the issue of early child development.
Martin, who will speak at the event, said his national program was designed to plug the gaps in each province's individual child care systems - by providing funding for everything from extra daycare seats to salaries for child care workers.
"The single most important economic program you can have is early childhood education. It means that all children, but disadvantaged children in particular, are much better prepared for school," Martin said.
"I think it's both a moral issue and an economic issue."
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- reprinted from the Telegraph-Journal