Conservative Taxable Allowance 'Out of Touch' With Today's Families
Written by Wire Services   
Monday, 05 December 2005
The Conservative scheme for a child care taxable allowance is out of touch with today's families, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada said today.

"A taxable allowance is not child care and a political leader should know the difference," said CCAAC executive director Monica Lysack. "Throwing the problem back to parents to solve with a little money is no solution. It doesn't provide child care for working parents or early learning for children."
Lysack said that there is such a huge gap between the Conservative taxable allowance and the real cost of child care that it will have little impact on child care availability. Currently, there are only enough regulated child care spaces to serve 15% of Canadian families with children under 12. Working parents will not receive the full allowance, because it is taxable.

Harper's scheme rehashes the child care platform of the former Harris government in Ontario, which failed dismally. "Harris provided a child care supplement that produced no child care and a tax initiative for child care construction that did not build a single space."

Lysack said the Conservatives are not offering any accountability for taxpayer dollars. There will be no way to determine whether the money goes to any form of child care, let alone high quality child care. "An investment of $2.5 billion a year not tied to child care flies in the face of any kind of accountability for spending public funds."

The Conservatives also say they will only honour the first year of the five-year federal-provincial child care agreements. "Parents and the provinces will be left holding the bag after Harper cancels these agreements. This will halt the planning and development for expanding and improving child care that is underway in most provinces."

Lysack said the CCAAC wants the next government to put more money into expanding non-profit child care services and enact legislation guaranteeing the right of every child to a high quality child care space.