By Susannah Heath-Eves
Childcare advocates say the election of a Conservative government would be like a lump of coal in their stockings.
Childcare is a major issue that will be on the minds of voters as they head to polling stations Jan. 23 and many advocates say they prefer the NDP or Liberals who are planning to fund national childcare programs.
But Keith Fountain, the Conservative candidate in Ottawa Centre, says giving money to parents so they can make their own choices on childcare is a better approach.
The issue is certainly on the mind of Madelaine Northcott, 26, a single mother whose son Daniel’s day care spot at the Centretown Cooperative Kindergarten Program is fully subsidized by government. Northcott says she’ll vote Liberal because she’s in medical school at Ottawa University and can’t afford school and day care.
“Oh my God, it’s so important,” she says of her son’s enrolment in day care. “It’s the best thing to happen in my life.”
But Fountain says funnelling money to parents rather than to day cares is the best tactic. “The federal government should give money to parents and not do it through expensive government-run programs (that limit choices),” he says.
Last year, the federal Liberal government announced it would inject $5 billion into national childcare, and roughly $55 million of it has already reached the City of Ottawa. The city’s Child Care Service Plan is on track to deliver more programs and raise childcare subsidies by 50 per cent, according to Richard Mahoney, the Ottawa Centre Liberal candidate.
Mahoney says the government has a key role to play in distributing childcare funding.
“Not every family has the same resources and the same capacity to help their child,” he says.
While Paul Dewar, NDP candidate for Ottawa Centre, supports federal spending, he’d rather see dollars limited to public, non-profit day care, instead of leaving it up to the provinces and municipalities to decide.
“Personally, I’m concerned there are no national standards for delivery,” Dewar says.
He says he sees childcare much the same way as public education; not all parents can pay to enrol their children in private school or private day care, no matter what tax breaks the Conservatives propose.
Fountain says direct support to families wouldn’t be enough to cover childcare costs. He says childcare programming discourages parents from staying at home with their children.
“The Liberals are being judgmental,” Fountain says. “They’re saying to women especially, that if you feel you want to stay home to look after your children, then that’s no good.”
He says he’d rather let parents make the decision whether to send their kids to day care instead of making it for them through government policy.
Shellie Bird, an education officer at the Canadian Union of Public Employees, says that funnelling money to parents instead of childcare programs would be a step backwards.
“Harper’s the worst thing that could happen,” she says.
According to Bird, daycare budgets “flatlined” under Ontario’s provincial Tory government and the situation caused a serious crisis in childcare.