Our NDP budget provides a new child-care subsidy for families who decide to put their children in daycare of up to $1,250 per month, per child, depending on income.
I am in complete agreement with the idea of society as a whole subsidizing families by paying for child care. The problem is that we are only going to pay the subsidy to those who place their children in government subsidized daycare. If you are a single parent who prefers to stay home and care for your own children, you will get no subsidy. If you are a family who decides to live on one income and allow the other parent to stay home and care for your children, you will get no subsidy. If you drop your kids off at grandma’s house for child care, no subsidy. In fact instead of receiving a government subsidy to help you with child care, you will be required to pay the taxes that will be needed to subsidize the families who decide to both work, and place their children in daycare.
This government apparently believes that it is better to allow other people to care for your children than for you to care for your own children, and they even justify this policy by touting it as “Good for Business” because it allows more people to work, and support the economy.
I do not agree that we should formulate our child-care policies to benefit business. We would be much better off as a society if we had policies that were aimed at benefitting children and families. If we are going to subsidize child care, we should subsidize all child care, as all good child care is beneficial to our society as a whole. I also believe that the best child care is that which is provided by families themselves. We would be far better off to pay this subsidy directly to the parents, so that they could provide a good home environment with good nutritious meals on the table. Instead this government prefers to encourage all parents to work, subjecting most families to stressed-out parents and fast food suppers, and fewer, poorer, traditional families.
Rod Retzlaff
Glade, B.C.