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EXCERPTS
What are parents to make of the election spin around the current child care announcements?
The Conservative announcement that they would provide financial incentives to help small businesses create child-care spaces is not as laudable as it first appears. Few employers would have the money to invest in the facilities and personnel required to provide adequate day care. Furthermore, the Conservative Harris government tried a similar program in Ontario, which did not result in any new child-care spaces.
The Conservative proposal to provide parents $1,200 a year for each child is not enough to pay for child-care services, nor would such a program help build a single long-term child-care space.
A child-care space is more than a building and a yard; it involves progressive programs for the children.
A national child-care program is not an insult to the parenting capabilities of citizens. On the contrary, a national program that is accountable to parents and communities and sustains permanent spaces will support and help successive generations of parents and their offspring.
- reprinted from the Barrie Examiner