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The three opposition parties are joining child-care advocates in calling on the federal government to block "big-box" foreign companies from getting into child-care delivery in Canada.
"We are at a critical juncture in this country," said Shellie Bird, a spokesperson for a child-care coalition, citing the Star's recent report that small for-profit daycare centres in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have been approached by firms related to an Australian-based corporation that seeks to buy and take over their operations.
"There is an urgent need to protect Canadian child care from foreign corporate takeover," Bird, of the coalition Code Blue for Child Care, told reporters at a Parliament Hill news conference.
She said the federal government "must act quickly and decisively by passing Bill C-303," a bill introduced last year by the NDP.
The bill, the Early Learning and Child Care Act, calls for "accessible, universal and high-quality early-learning and child-care programs and services" and establishes criteria that must be observed before the federal government transfers money to provinces or native groups for such a program.
It has the support of all opposition parties, but the Conservatives have vowed not to pass it into law.
Opposition and child-care advocates say the bill can also protect the small owner-operated for-profit daycare centres in Canada from foreign takeovers because the bill "grandfathers" existing ones, and would not let taxpayer subsidies go to new big-box daycares.
New Democrat MP Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) said the government must acknowledge the failure of its plan to provide tax credits to businesses to build child-care spaces. She said no child-care spaces have been created, despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper's promise to stimulate the creation of 125,000 spaces over five years. And the money &em; $250 million a year &em; was merely transferred to the provinces with no strings attached.
Big companies are rushing to fill "the policy vacuum" and see an opportunity to make money, "because we don't have affordable non-profit child care," said Chow.
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"It's a Wal-Martization of daycare in Canada," said Liberal critic Ruby Dhalla.
Dhalla (Brampton-Springdale) said the Liberals support the bill because it would provide universal, accessible, affordable daycare. However, she declined to say whether the Liberals have now dropped support for the for-profit sector and shifted their policy in favour of purely non-profit, public daycares.
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The second-reading vote on Bill C303 will take place late this month, and third and final reading is expected early in the new year. The Tories have signalled they have no plans to support the bill.
Yesterday, a government spokesperson said Human Resources and Social Development Minister Monte Solberg was unavailable for comment. But in the Commons, Solberg said the government is "working co-operatively" with provinces on child care and is giving parents the $100-a-month taxable childcare benefit.
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- reprinted from the Toronto Star