NDP thinks big with national daycare plan

[applegrove]

NDP thinks big with national daycare plan

by Jeffrey Simpson at the Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/headline/article21094039/

"SNIP.......................


Good for Thomas Mulcair and the New Democratic Party. Finally, they have put a Big Idea in front of Canadians.

The Big Idea is federally financed daycare. Make no mistake, it’s a big-government idea, and as such will be attacked from many quarters. But parents of young children – indeed all Canadians – should ask themselves: Is our current child-care situation working?

In far too many places, parents either can’t find child care or can’t afford it. Costs per child can easily run past $1,000 a month, a burden that hurts people trying to balance work and child rearing. Women (who still do most of the heavy lifting with young children) who work produce tax revenue. Proper, affordable daycare allows more of them to work, which means more revenue for the government.

In other words, what’s spent on government-sponsored child care should be offset by revenue gained by individuals and governments. This tradeoff, argued for strongly by Quebec economist Pierre Fortin, was brilliantly explained last year in a Globe and Mail series on child care spearheaded by writer Erin Anderssen.




..........................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Let's hope the Liberals follow. I've been waiting to see this

for a long time.

[mndemsocialist]

2. Hell has frozen over

Wow.

Jeffrey Simpson has something good to say about the NDP.

As for the Liberals, they've had plenty of time to do something about childcare...cue the crickets...

[laundry_queen]

3. Thank you Tom Mulcair

As a single parent who was a full time student trying to find affordable childcare for my youngest child, thank you. I got ridiculously lucky when I needed childcare desperately, noticed an ad on Kijiji, called the number and found out the person was just starting out but had certification to run a home daycare. I was her first client. Within 2 weeks she was full. I was SO lucky (she also turned out to be an INCREDIBLE caregiver and even though my youngest is now in school full time, we still visit and talk regularly) but what bothers me the most is the cost. I really, really struggled to pay for childcare, and I had a full subsidy. I still paid $400/month with the highest subsidy possible (which paid more than half the cost). As a student with no job and 4 kids, it wasn't easy.

As someone who now has a business degree, I agree with Fortin - easily accessible and affordable HIGH QUALITY daycare would boost the country's GDP. Mr "economist" Harper should know this. When I lived in a small northern town after my first daughter was born, I never did go back to work, even though I had a great job at a bank, because the daycare situation was horrendous (the only daycare in town had dealt with a few shut downs, anyone else doing it in town had no certification). Had I been able to rely on high quality affordable government daycare, I probably would've gone back to work.

There are many conservative leaning 'rich' parents here who struggle to find good childcare. This will resonate with them, for sure. Good for the NDP.