Updated: 12/13/05
Child Care and Day Care in Canada - Background
The need for affordable day care across Canada has been talked about since the 1970s, but has been slow to become a reality. In 1997, the province of Quebec introduced a day care program, with day care spaces for $5 a day ($7 day in 2005). The federal Liberal budget in 2005 included $5 billion over five years for an Early Learning and Child Care Initiative to be developed with the provinces and territories. The first year funding was placed in a trust fund, and the government has negotiated funding agreements with all provinces, at least in principle.
Liberal Party on Child Care
- The Liberals support government-regulated, non-profit child care.
- The Early Learning and Child Care Initiative was put in place by the 2005 federal budget and new investments of $5 billion over five years. The initiative is designed to help provincial and territorial governments in Canada improve access to affordable, regulated early learning and child care programs and services delivered by the provinces. The basic principles underlying the child care agreements with the provinces are quality, universal inclusiveness, accessibility, and development.
- If the Liberals are re-elected they have committed to making the initiative a permanent social program, and will put at least an additional $6 billion to finance the program through to 2015.
- Paul Martin also has pointed out that federal infrastructure money can also be used to create new day care spaces.
Conservative Party on Child Care
- The Conservatives are proposing to spend $10.9 billion on child care over five years through several initiatives.
- The Conservatives propose a Choice in Child Care Allowance of $1,200 a year for each child under six. Starting in 2006, the money would be paid directly to parents and apply to an estimated 2 million children. It would apply no matter what child care option parents choose - day care, babysitter or stay-at-home parent.
- The Choice in Child Care Allowance would be taxed on the income of the lower income spouse.
- The Conservatives also propose establishing a Community Childcare Investment Program worth $250 million a year. A $10,000 tax credit would be used to help employers and communities create 25,000 new child care spaces a year for five years. The Conservative Party plan encourages private, for-profit day care providers.
- The Conservatives say they would honour one-year bilateral commitments made by the Liberal government with the provinces for child care.
Bloc Québécois on Child Care
- As with other policies, the Bloc is not interested in national strategies.
- The Bloc does want to make sure that Quebec gets its share of any money that would be transferred to the provinces for child care.
NDP on Child Care
- The NDP is proposing a Child Care Act to ensure that federal funding for child care is targeted at licensed, high-quality, non-profit child care.
- The NDP would invest $1.8 billion in child care next year, with annual increases of $250 million for the next three years. They say that would create 200,000 additional spaces in the first year, and 25,000 spaces annually after that.
- They also want for-profit "big-box" child care corporations banned from a national child care plan. At a minimum, the NDP say there should be a cap on the number of children or centres a company is allowed to manage.
- In addition, the NDP proposes an increase of $1000 in the federal child tax credit phased in over four years to help lower-income families cover child care costs and other essential expenses.
