THUNDER BAY -- The NDP are promising parents they won’t have to pay more than $15 a day for child care if elected in 12 months.
On Tuesday the party rolled out the first plank of its 2015 platform, promising up front spending of $1.9 billion to fund 370,000 daycare spots nationwide, which after eight years will grow by $5 billion compared to current federal government spending.
NDP MP John Rafferty (Thunder Bay-Rainy River) said the plan is to work with the provinces to implement the program.
The goal is to make heading back to the workforce attractive to parents, who might see spending the lion’s share of their salary on child care as a deterrent and not worth their while.
It’s well worth the investment, Rafferty said.
“It’s one of these odd type of projects where we may not see the benefits for five, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, as these children grow up,” he said.
“But I think if you have quality, affordable, safe and secure child care, all of us who are parents can see the benefits of that.”
Rafferty pointed to Quebec as an example of how the program might work. While parents in Ontario pay average monthly fees of $1,152 for an infant day-care spot, the same spot in Quebec only costs $152, according to NDP-supplied research.
That same data suggests some parents are paying as high as $2,000 a month, while child-care costs on average chew up 18.4 per cent of Canadian family household incomes.
In many communities, particularly First Nations communities, the vast majority of parents have no access to child-care facilities.
The NDP, citing TD Bank research, said for every dollar spent on childcare, provincial and federal coffers see increased tax revenues and decreased social spending totaling from $1.49 to $2.78. That’s worth about $3 billion, said economist Pierre Fortin.
Parent and early childhood educator Marilyn Lieterman said the legislation would be fantastic news.
Lieterman said she has five children, all of whom were lucky enough to go to daycare. Two of her children have developmental disabilities.
“To me it’s made the difference as to why they’re achieving the way they are in school right now,” she said.
It’s not easy for parents to afford, she added.
“It can be extremely tough,” Lieterman said.
“I’ve spoken to several parents who want to go to work to subsidize their income to help pay for things they need. Because they can’t afford childcare, they can’t go to work. So they’re stuck not being able to afford what everyone else deserves in life.”
