Tories Propose to Raise Parents' Allowance: Conservatives Plan to Give $100 a Month to Parents; Critics Say Money Won't Fix System
The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday December 6th, 2005
Page: A3
Section: News
Byline: Mike Sadava
Dateline: Edmonton
Source: The Edmonton Journal; with files from CanWest News Service
EDMONTON - Stephen Harper's plan to give a family allowance of $1,200 to parents of pre-schoolers for the child care of their choice won't improve the system, according to some day-care advocates.
The Conservative leader's proposal won't create one extra child-care space, and some parents could end up losing once a federal-provincial agreement ends because of Harper's deal, said Natalie Weller, director of the Town of Beaumont Child Care Services.
"It's definitely not child-centred", Weller said. "It's all about income that has nothing to do with child care or making it more accessible or building a better system".
Her municipally-funded centre currently has a waiting list of 35, and Harper's proposal does nothing for those parents, Weller said.
One of her biggest concerns is that Harper has said he would back out of the long-awaited, five-year child-care agreement with Alberta after one year. Under that agreement, developed by the federal Liberals and the provincial government, working families earning less than $40,000 receive subsidies for day care, and stay-at-home parents receive $100 per month for enriching activities such as play school.
Weller said scuttling the agreement would also end wage subsidies that go to accredited day-care centres for having highly-qualified staff, which she said has helped recruit more qualified workers.
Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of the advocacy group Public Interest Alberta, pointed out that under Harper's plan the family earning $200,000 a year with two-preschoolers will get the same $2,400 as the family struggling to get by with $30,000. And the wealthy family could spend the money on things like ski trips, rather than on child care.
"Giving money to parents won't build a child-care system just like giving money to parents wouldn't build an education system and giving money to drivers wouldn't build roads", Moore-Kilgannon said. "It's good politics to say this stuff, but in five years will we have a better system? No".
But Brian Rushfeldt, executive director of the Calgary-based Canadian Family Action Coalition, said Harper's proposal is "a step in the right direction". He likes the idea that it gives parents choice, and rewards those who would either stay at home or have a neighbour look after their kids as much as those who use an institutional day-care centre.
The Liberal policy was forcing families to put their kids in day-care centres, and many parents don't want their children in that environment, Rushfeldt said.
However, he was concerned that the payments be made in an efficient manner and that the government avoids creating another bureaucracy to deliver the money.
Martha Friendly, a University of Toronto child care specialist, said Harper's plan is not enough to encourage more parents to stay at home, nor will it make a significant dent in child-care costs for working parents, which can run around $1,200 per month in licensed centres.
"If you're a mom thinking about staying at home, how would $100 a month affect somebody's decision? she asked "It doesn't follow any kind of best practice of spending the public's money in an accountable manner".
Friendly thinks that the credit will only benefit the well-off - those who can already afford to stay at home or those who already have the means to pay for the type of child care they want.
"It won't help either the creation or the maintenance of the good-quality child care that provides early learning", said Friendly, co-ordinator of the university's Chyild Care Resource and Research Unit.
"For the majority of people who can't use regulated child care because it's too expensive, $100 a month is not significant income".
Called the Choice in Child Care Allowance, Harper's $10.9-billion plan over five years would give every family $1,200 annually for each child under six. The new program would be in addition to the current Canada Tax Benefit, the National Child Benefit Supplement and the child-care expense deduction.
The Conservative plan is the polar opposite of the Liberal's $5-billion program to create cheaper, licensed day-care spaces across the country.
The Liberals say their plan is the only way to deal with the reality that more than 70 per cent of parents with children under the age of six are both in the workforce.
Later Monday, the Liberals indicated they would double their commitment to child care in a $10-billion announcement today.
msadava@thejournal.canwest.com
