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Hitchhiker
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: Ontario, Canada
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 Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:54 pm The child-care plans (Liberal versus Conservative) |
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Okay, so the Tories and the Grits have extremely different policies when it comes to this.
| CBC News wrote: | Tories promise new child-care allowance
Last Updated Mon, 05 Dec 2005 22:45:09 EST
CBC News
Stephen Harper unveiled a Conservative plan on Monday that would give parents of young children $100 a month for child care.
The Tory leader made the announcement at a noisy day-care centre in Ottawa. "This is just like a caucus meeting," he said on a campaign stop for the Jan. 23 federal election.
Addressing the challenges parents face in raising kids while trying to earn a living, Harper said, "The Conservative plan for families will help parents find that balance."
The Conservatives' two-part plan includes money to help create child-care spaces as well as the $100-a-month "choice in child-care allowance."
With the new allowance, families would receive $1,200 a year for each child under the age of six.
"Parents can spend the money however they wish. You can choose the child-care option that best suits your family's needs," Harper said.
"It's hard enough to be a parent. But government should help parents with choices not limit them," Harper said.
"In fact, the only people who should be making these choices are parents, not politicians, not the government."
Some child-care advocates, however, say the Tory plan is based on old, outmoded thinking.
"We've been trying to fund child care through benefits to families or parent subsidies for 30 years, and it hasn't worked," said Kira Heineck, executive director of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. "We'd like to see investment directly in programs across the country."
The new program would not replace any existing major benefit program, Harper said. It would be in addition to the current Canada Child Tax Benefit, the National Child Benefit Supplement and the child-care expense deduction.
A Conservative government would also honour the one-year bilateral commitments the Liberal government reached with provinces for institutional child care, Harper said.
The new benefit would not be clawed back from middle-income families, he said. It would be taxable in the hands of the spouse earning the lower income.
"Government should support your choices, not limit them," he said.
Liberal Leader Paul Martin said he would put money into child-care programs. In the last campaign, the Liberals promised to build a $5 billion Quebec-style national child-care system that they claimed would create 250,000 licensed child-care spaces by 2009.
"Mr. Harper has said he does not believe, and I quote, in subsidized child care and early development," Martin told reporters in St. John's. "Well, I do."
The second part of the Conservative plan calls for $250 million a year to be set aside for investment in community child care. The money is meant to increase the availability of child care by offering tax credits for capital investments in child-care spaces.
Harper predicted the plan would create 125,000 spaces over five years.
The Conservative funding would be in addition to the existing benefits available to Canadians, including the Canada Child Tax Benefit . The total cost of the program would be $10.9 billion over five years. |
Source
| CBC News wrote: | Liberals to extend child-care plan
Last Updated Tue, 06 Dec 2005 12:57:31 EST
CBC News
The Liberals renewed their commitment to a national child-care system on Tuesday, with Leader Paul Martin vowing to increase Ottawa's spending to $11 billion.
In their 2004 election platform, the Liberals promised to spend $5 billion over five years. Martin now says his government would kick in another $6 billion starting in 2009, when the first commitment runs out.
"Like medicare, our program will be a lasting addition to our social foundation," Martin said, speaking at a YMCA child-care facility in Saint John, N.B., where he bantered with some of the excited kids as he began his announcement.
"We'll see how happy you are 20 minutes from now if you still have to be sitting there and be quiet," Martin joked.
Martin's announcement comes a day after Conservative Leader Stephen Harper set out his party's child-care plan, the key component of which would be a $1,200 annual allowance for parents of young children.
Martin dismissed the Tory plan as not about child care at all.
"There's going to be no early learning, no regulation, no insistence on high quality, so it's simply an empty box," Martin said. "That's not a child-care plan. What it really is is maybe a kind of baby bonus, but that's it."
The child-care plan extension is the first major policy announcement by the Liberals, who have been mostly reacting to Tory proposals since the campaign for the Jan. 23 vote started a week ago.
"We're here to discuss the next steps that we want to take towards a permanent and nationwide system of early learning and child care," Martin said.
"Creating a nationwide system of early learning and child care is a great national endeavour. It speaks to the good that government can do." |
Source
Interesting divide.
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Valathous
The Canadian, eh
Joined: 31 Aug 2002
Posts: 19074
Location: Centre Bell
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| Wed Dec 07, 2005 2:43 am |
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I prefer Martin's. Not only is it putting more into programs for young children (a lot more) but with Harper's plan you know that many of the people won't use their nice big $100 a month for their child. They'll spend it on other things and continue struggling. Not that $100 would prevent them from struggling with their children if on a low-income anyways.
Go Martin! 
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Brightstar82
Rear Admiral
Joined: 08 Apr 2005
Posts: 4394
Location: A Borg Cube....Where Else?
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| Wed Dec 07, 2005 8:27 am |
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Im going with Paul Martin all the way. Sure Harper says these things now but I doubt he'll come through with all these promices once he gets into office.
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