Excerpts:
The Harper government's plan to help families defer the costs of child care has been largely ineffective, a new study released by a child care policy group has found.
According to the report published by the Childcare Resource Unit, a child care research and advocacy group, taxpayers have spent $17.5 billion funding a child care program that has done little to help parents.
The Universal Child Care Benefit program, introduced by the Harper government in 2006, was created to give parents more options in child care. Under the program, parents are sent a $100 taxable cheque each month for every child under age six.
But the $2.5 billion-a-year program, the report states, has only marginally improved success indicators, including access and affordability, for high-quality care [...]
- reprinted from iPolitics