Let’s have a look at the first paragraph of Universal Child Care Plan description as listed on the web page: http://www.universalchildcare.ca/en/about.shtml.
"Canada's New Government is pleased to introduce Canada's Universal Child Care Plan, a national plan that provides Choice, Support and Spaces for today's parents."
Sounds like a good plan to me! Choice, support and spaces… what more can you ask for?
Let’s start by choice: Our new government is committed to letting working families chose the style of child care they want for their children. Because of their initiative, families can now choose between sending the kids to daycare or having mom do the work.
Support: Finally, we have a government supporting young families. Because of their timely action, all families that apply will receive $100 a month from the federal government for each child under the age of six. It will finally be possible to afford daycare at $4 a day… in February! And even better, this benefit will be taxable in the hands of the lower-income spouse. I personally think the government should apply this new program to all children. With the current system, families aren't given the choice of homeschooling their kids. Why doesn't the government close public schools and give families $2000 a child to send them to a private one or to pay for homeschooling expenses? It would be so much more productive, especially if they remember to tax it like they tax child care.
Spaces: When
2 comments:
Enjoyed your expose of the Harper "Universal child care plan", Laurent.
Not sure what they think the words "universal" and "plan" mean. :-)
Great analytical skills, and a sharp wit, to boot! Well done.
Audrey
(languishing in Ottawa without a child care stipend)
This government sure got some economic training. Economists like choice and prefer cash rather than in-kind transfers (e.g. national day-care centres). Raised in a planned economy with only one type of yogurt on grocery store shelves I truly believe people deserve better - they should be able to make a choice for themselves. This is essentially why cash transfers provide individuals with higher utility (satisfaction).
But current government apparently was not a very good student in Economics class. There is one condition for a cash transfer being better than an in-kind transfer... The cash transfer has to ensure that parents can afford the same level of daycare as they would choose should the government decide to provide national daycare.
I am waiting eagerly to see how many spaces the government can get provided for $100 per month per child! (Note, min wage is $8 per hr - which pays for 12 hrs per month of babysitting in your own home, with your own toys and your own food to someone who is willing to do it for a min wage! I am not even willing to think about daycare quality here!
Instead I may be better off saving the daycare money to buy hockey equipment for my future kid. It may take several years of saving, but at least I can say thank you to Canadian government for giving this choice to me.
Olga (future user of a national day care plan)
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