daycare

Thursday April 22, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 22, 2021

Government Tall on ideas, short on attention span

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s expansive budget mentions a “pipeline for vaccines,” a “talent pipeline,” an “innovation pipeline,” and a “pipeline of personal protective equipment.” But there is not a single mention of a pipeline that delivers oil or gas.

June 13, 2019

Along with a lack of concern for workers in the oil-and-gas industry, the budget undersells defence priorities. And the Liberal pledge to move toward a national pharmacare program is, to put it charitably, unconvincing.

The budget, in other words, tells us what Liberals do care about, but also what they don’t.

The Liberals’ 2019 election manifesto promised “to take the crucial next steps to implement national universal pharmacare,” while last September’s Throne Speech declared “the government remains committed to a national, universal pharmacare program and will accelerate steps to achieve this system.”

March 6, 2018

But the budget, while repeating its commitment to a national pharmacare program, offers no new funding for it. There is simply the previously announced $500-million to assist provinces in support of those forced to pay extremely high prices for drugs needed to combat rare diseases.

The Liberals could respond that their ambitious new child-care program makes it impossible to move on pharmacare right now. And it would be a fair defence. A national $10-a-day child care program would be a major new commitment and a major federal expense, at $8-billion a year.

December 21, 2016

Before committing to it, however, provincial governments might wish to remember previous programs, especially in health care and housing, in which Ottawa seduced the provinces into joining on an equal shared-cost basis, only to later withdraw funding when some shiny new public policy bauble came along, leaving the provinces holding the fiscal bag.

This budget offers billions to accelerate progress toward a strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions and to help green-tech businesses scale up. There are major tax breaks for companies that invest in green technologies.

But while future tax breaks are promised for industries that deploy carbon-capture technology, the commitment is vague and based on future consultations and legislation. The budget appears determined to ignore the reality that natural resources, and in particular the oil and gas sector, are crucial both to this country’s economic future and to fighting climate change.

November 17, 2015

National defence is another area singled out for neglect. When Mr. Biden met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in February, both leaders committed to modernizing the North American Aerospace Defence Command. But the budget allocates a paltry $50-million a year or so for five years as Canada’s commitment to a modernizing program, a tiny fraction of the many billions of dollars that defence experts estimate it would cost to install the satellites, radar and other technologies needed to detect hypersonic missiles and other new weapons that the Russians and the Chinese possess or are developing.

Whatever happens on the child care front, the budget’s virtual silence on pharmacare suggests that program, like NORAD and oil and gas, is something this government doesn’t plan on spending real time and money on any time soon. (Globe & Mail) 

 

Tuesday April 20, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 20, 2021

Liberals promise $30B over 5 years to create national child-care system

December 7, 2005

After decades of broken promises and half measures on child care, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced today the federal government will invest roughly $30 billion over five years to help offset the cost of early learning and child care services.

This federal investment — the single largest line item in the massive 739-page budget document tabled today — is designed to significantly reduce what parents pay for care in the coming years. The government’s stated goal is to make life more affordable and to drive economic growth by drawing more women into the workforce.

The federal government estimates the COVID-19 pandemic has driven at least 16,000 women out of the job market altogether, while the male labour force has grown by 91,000 over the same period.

Another recent analysis by RBC found that almost half a million Canadian women who lost their jobs during the pandemic still hadn’t returned to work as of January. Employment among women in Canada who earned less than $800 a week has fallen almost 30 per cent, the bank reported.

May 4, 2019

Freeland said this child care investment will help counter some of the gender disparities fuelled by the pandemic crisis.

Freeland said that, as result of the new spending, the next 18 months could see a reduction of up to 50 per cent in the average child care fees paid by parents. With child care expenses running nearly as high as rent or mortgage payments in some cities, the household savings could be significant.

But to get average fees down to that lower level, the provinces and territories would have to kick in more funding as well. The promise of additional federal money could be used as a bargaining chip to convince provinces and territories to boost their own spending in this area.

Freeland said such an affordable child care system could increase the overall size of the economy — as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) — by some 1.2 per cent.

“It’s expensive, but it’s an investment worth making,” she said.

July 9, 2020

Of the $30 billion promised today, $27.2 billion will be used to “bring the federal government to a 50/50 share of child care costs with provincial and territorial governments,” says the budget document. 

The government’s stated goal is to drive down child-minding costs within five years to just $10 a day per child, nationwide — significantly less than what most working parents pay now in all jurisdictions outside Quebec.

The budget earmarks another $2.5 billion for the Indigenous early learning and child care system — to create new spaces, to build or renovate existing centres and to support after-school care programs on-reserve.

The budget also sets aside money to make over 400 existing child care centres nationwide more accessible for children with disabilities.(CBC) 

 

Saturday May 4, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 4, 2019

Province’s funding cuts jeopardize 6,166 subsidized child care spaces in Toronto, staff says

Provincial funding cuts and policy changes could result in 6,166 fewer subsidized child care spaces in Toronto and cost the city more than $80-million this year alone, according to city staff.

In a memo to the mayor and council obtained by CBC Toronto on Thursday, City Manager Chris Murray detailed the potential impacts of a reduction in child care funding that was outlined in the province’s recent 2019 budget. The fallout will be compounded by considerable changes to existing child care-related cost-sharing models, the memo says.

“As with recent changes to the provincial/municipal cost-sharing arrangements for public health, the City was not consulted or provided with any advance warning of these changes,” the memo says.

Murray cautions that city staff are still awaiting precise numbers from the province, but they estimate that, cumulatively, the changes will cost Toronto $84.8 million this year. That figure includes a $28.6-million reduction in direct provincial funding and $56.2-million due to cost-sharing changes, the memo explains. 

“This represents a direct pressure on the 2019 Children’s Services Operating Budget, which city council has already approved and for which the municipal levy bylaw has been passed,” it continues.

The result is the potential loss of 6,166 subsidized child care spaces in Toronto, the memo estimates.

The overall number of child care spaces is not expected to change, but a smaller number will be filled by children who have access to the subsidy, the city says. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Wednesday December 7, 2005

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 7, 2005

Affordable child care is here to stay

Likening child care to medicare, Paul Martin wants to make the Liberals’ five-year, $5 billion daycare program a permanent feature of Canadian life at a cost of an extra $6 billion by 2015.

“Affordable child care” is “here to stay” and will be “a lasting addition to our social foundation,” the Prime Minister declared yesterday as he announced the campaign promise at a daycare centre in Saint John, N.B.

“This is an initiative that we believe, without any shadow of a doubt, will stand the test of time and will make a real and lasting difference in the lives of our children and in our communities.”

The pledge, the first new Liberal proposal of the campaign, would mean federal funding of $1.2 billion a year going to the provinces for child care after the current program expires in five years.

Martin said the extension of the program was requested by community groups and provincial governments, all of which have signed agreements with Ottawa in the past 17 months to develop early learning and daycare programs.

In Ontario’s case, the plan is to create 25,000 new regulated child-care spaces by early 2008.

The Liberals have promised a national daycare program in every election campaign since 1993. (CP)