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A Harper government-commissioned report on child care released quietly this week calls for parental benefits to be extended to 18 months from the current 12, and asks that the government consider extending the leave to 2½ years.
The report on increasing child care spots also calls for 60-day grandparent leave, and for both parents to be allowed to take leave and receive benefits -- instead of splitting the benefits.
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At least one member of the committee, which submitted the report in January, is unhappy with Ottawa's lack of reaction and doesn't believe the recommendations will go anywhere.
Although the expert nine-member committee was established with some fanfare by the government last September, the report was put on the government's website this week after several requests from the media and opposition parties, with no news release.
"If truly this government wanted to talk about the issues in the report, it would have been out before the budget," said committee member Don Giesbrecht, executive director of the Canadian Child Care Federation.
"There was some good stuff in that report. And it's a shame it hasn't gotten out or even been -- from what I can tell -- considered or looked at seriously by this government."
Lesley Harmer, a spokeswoman from Human Resources and Social Development Minister Monte Solberg's office, did not comment directly on the recommendations, but said the report is one of several sources considered as the government makes its child care policy decisions.
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- reprinted from the Calgary Herald