I participated recently in the webinar at which you spoke, sponsored by the Toronto Star, First Policy Response, the Lawson Foundation and others. The topic was “Delivering on the Commitment: A Canada-Wide Childcare Plan”. I often disagree with your policy positions in relation to child care, but I think it is important in any debate that we can agree on facts before opinion takes over. So, if you will permit me, let me correct a couple of things that you said at that webinar. First, the Government of Ontario did not get rid of the Child Care Expense Deduction in Ontario. It still …
How Big Will the Expansion of Child Care Services Need to be in Ontario?
The federal budget puts forward very substantial amounts of money for early learning and child care – $30 Billion over 5 years, or more importantly $8.3 Billion of new federal money in perpetuity from 2025-26 onwards. The federal template calls for a cut of 50% in parent fees by the end of 2022, and an average fee of $10 a day for children 0-5 years of age across Canada (outside Quebec) by 2025-26. How much more child care capacity will Ontario need? It’s an important question. Ontario will need to plan a very rapid expansion of capacity, but do it …
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Why Andrew Coyne is Wrong About Child Care Funding
Andrew Coyne knows very little about child care, but feels free to pontificate about it. It’s a shame, because some people still listen to him and believe he has done his homework. He hasn’t. And so, he concludes that the federal government should help parents, especially low-income ones, by giving them a direct subsidy – money. There are more than a few problems with his opinion piece in the Globe and Mail. Apparently, Andrew doesn’t realize that we already have a direct payment to parents, similar to the one he is calling for and geared to income, called the Canada …
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Another Poorly Conceived Child Care Proposal from C.D. Howe
I believe we need a child care system across Canada that is as dependable, beneficial for children and accessible as the public school system and nearly as affordable. I think that is what the Finance Minister promised in the Fall Economic Statement when she said that “Quebec can show us the way on child care.” Ken Boessenkool and Jennifer Robson offer a different perspective on how to build a child care system in a C.D. Howe Commentary entitled “Aggressive Incrementalism: Strengthening the Foundations of Canada’s Approach to Childcare”. They argue for an incremental approach – “building on what exists”. This …
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The new Angus Reid poll on child care
Great News for Supporters of a National Child Care System Cardus must really be kicking themselves. Cardus is a Christian research and advocacy organization that spent a lot of money on that recent Angus Reid poll on attitudes to a national child care program. I’m sure they expected to hear a lot of support for their view that governments should just give money to parents with children. Cardus opposes building a child care system that is universally available to families. And they believe that Canadian families support their point of view. Imagine their surprise then when Angus Reid found that …
What Lessons can the Rest of Canada Learn from Quebec Child Care?
Article Link What is “the Quebec model” of early learning and child care? There are several different lessons to learn about the Quebec model. Generally, the decisions to rely on direct funding, on building good quality not for profit child care, on building a system that includes enhanced maternity parental benefits/leaves as well as schoolaged child care have been very positive. But, we also need to learn from the problems Quebec has had. They only had sufficient supply for 15% of the child population (0-4) at the time that they announced low-cost universal child care, and they’ve been behind the curve ever since. That really is …
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Ontario’s Full-Day Kindergarten – a report for ETFO
Executive Summary Download the Executive Summary Main Report Download the Main Report The Background Story In early February this year, the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario released my report on Ontario’s Full-Day Kindergarten. It was written as a reponse to Conservative Government plans to reform kindergarten in negative ways. My review of the literature found that these plans were badly off base – full-day kindergarten in Ontario is very good and worth preserving (and improving). There’s a hidden story about that study on full-day kindergarten in Ontario. I actually wrote it towards the end of 2019, in response to the …
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Why an Ontario Tax Credit for Child Care is a Bad Idea
Here’s a link to my recent article in The Conversation Canada explaining what’s wrong with Doug Ford’s tax credit plan.
How much will Doug Ford’s tax credit for child care cost?
Doug Ford’s promised in the last election to deliver child care affordability for a small amount of money ($389 million per year) for all children in Ontario 0-14 years of age. That’s a total of 2.2 million children. In other words, Doug Ford thinks he can make child care affordable for a price of less than $180.00 per child per year. On the face of it, this cannot possibly be true.
DES SERVICES ABORDABLES POUR TOUS
Enfin, en francais….le rapport final. Study recommends provision of fully publicly-funded child care for children 30 months to kindergarten as the next step forward to dramatically improve child care affordability in Ontario.