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Canada's daycare record is abysmal, and no matter what the federal government tries to claim, parents know it.
Canada was tied for last among developed countries for providing affordable and quality daycare in a UN report. Ontario recently had to come up with $18 million to save daycare spaces that were about to close because federal funding had expired. Toronto alone has 15,000 families on a waiting list for a daycare space they can afford.
Despite all this, Stephen Harper's Conservative government saw cause last week to "celebrate" the third anniversary of its universal child-care benefit. That's what the government calls the $100-a-month cheques it gives families for children under 6, as a substitute for funding a national child-care program that we desperately need.
The government claims these cheques let parents "choose the child-care option that best suits their needs."
Unfortunately, $100 a month - which is taxable - isn't nearly enough. It does not pay for more than a couple of days of child care, and that's assuming parents can find a space. Nor is it enough to make it affordable for a working parent to stay at home. "They're calling it choice, when there is none," notes child-care advocate Jane Mercer.
These $100 cheques have cost the federal treasury $7.5 billion without creating a single new affordable daycare space.
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This is a cause for shame, not celebration.
- reprinted from the Toronto Star