Childcare funding, another promise

Child care is bandied about every election. The Liberals promise it, like they have since 1993. The Conservatives under Harper say they know a better way and send parents $100 for every child.

The trouble is these parties make child care a carrot for voters. The carrot was held out there by Brian Mulroney back in 1989 and became a central part of the Jean Chretien Liberals infamous "Red Book". Each of the following four elections the Liberals promised a National Day care plan. Harper said he was going to give money to parents, thus ending the chance of a "real" child care program.

Paul Martin implemented part of a program, thanks to a budget the NDP helped him with.

Electoral politics took over again and Martin decided to call an election. Martin introduced a budget that the NDP told them they would not support. The budget called for 50 billion dollars of tax cuts for big business. The previous Martin budget was also to include the tax cut, but in turn for the NDP support, Martin delayed the plan to cut corporate taxes.

Martin was well aware his budget would be defeated. He was counting on it. Martin and the Liberals felt they had nothing to lose. If the NDP supported the budget, they could continue in power and their corporate tax cuts would go ahead. The National Child care plan could then be implemented albeit much slower in its implementation. If the Liberals lost a budget vote, Martin could count on the carrots, a national day care program, a new deal with first nations.

People didn't even sniff at Martin's carrots. The old tried and true enticements did not work. Martin lost and the Liberals have voted for every single Conservative budget (some by pretending they weren't even there) Harper has brought in. Budgets that have stopped funding of child care, that have cut taxes to large corporations, and reduced the ability of the federal government to provide services.

The next election will see the Liberal party promising child care again and the big one will be, no new taxes. The Conservatives will promise no new taxes and likely promise not to cut anything.

No party elected in Canada can promise we will get anywhere without new revenue, and tax revenue is likely the only place to get it.

We had child care in 1942

Child care has been a promise of government for years. The federal government once provided childcare in Canada. It began in 1942 when it saw women were needed in factories to assist the war effort. It was not uncommon for women to tether their child in the yard before they went off to work. Other arrangements were made, such as leaving your child with a friend or family member.

see this clip from CBC Archives.

The State saw the value in providing this care then but lost sight of its value when the war ended. Women were let go from there jobs and replaced by the returning men. The women were then expected to stay home and look after these children.

Ontario after some protests from women that lost their husbands in the war, kept some day cares going. The federal government however got out of the business of daycare funding.

The return of the federal government to the provision of daycare funding has been demanded for years. The NDP and the CCF had been asking for it years. The Conservative government of Brian Mulroney promised a national daycare program in 1984. By 1992 it became clear the federal government was going to back out of the promise. (see CBC clip Broken Promises)

Against a strong public protest in 1992, the Liberals in the election of 1993 prominently proclaimed Childcare as high priority in the infamous Redbook Canadians had a reasonable expectation that the long wait was over. It never happened.

In each successive election the Liberal government promised to deliver on Day care. After the election victory, the funding was never found, the promise unfulfilled, but it done its work in seeing some people vote Liberal in a vain hope it would happen this time.

We came close to getting daycare in Paul Martin's government. Martin was looking for issues to separate his Liberal minority from that of the Conservatives led by Stephen Harper. Child care was a key piece of his agenda. They actually started to negotiate with some provinces. Unfortunately Martin wanted to use the carrot of childcare in the election. He did not introduce the need legislation to Parliament. It would have passed had he done so however his thought was that to defeat Harper, he needed to give people something to vote for. The carrot did not work as we all know.

Harper won the election and changed direction on childcare. Now parents get money directly which covers only a very small portion of the cost. The hope of affordable childcare has been lost certainly under Harper.

Now Ken Dryden, LPC MP from Toronto is promising it again. This time they mean it. That's what he and some Liberals are saying. Just as Ignatieff has had to state very strongly his party is going to vote non confidence in the Harper Government, they have to be strong on childcare.

Will the Liberals bring in national funding to childcare if elected. This time they will have too. I expect if the Liberals are in a minority, they will need the NDP support to stay there. Childcare will be high on the list of things required of a minority government.