Choice in Child Care Plan

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Introduction

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I begin, I want to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful people of Haldimand-Norfolk, who have once again asked me to represent them in this place. My gratitude goes out to them and to all those who worked so hard to grant me this privilege.

Mr. Speaker, it is indeed an honour to have this opportunity to speak to one of our government's top five priorities as outlined in the Speech from the Throne.

I am referring, of course, to the Government's strong commitment to the well being of children and families. A commitment we are proud to advance through our proposed new Choice in Child Care Plan.

The centrepiece of the plan, the Choice in Child Care Allowance, is a $1,200-a-year benefit for all parents of preschoolers, regardless of their income and career choices, where they live, or how they wish to raise their children.

Combined with the many federal supports already available to Canadian families, this universal Allowance will give parents more choice in child care. Whether child care is provided at home, with neighbours or a family member, or in a day care setting in the community or in a work environment, parents need the freedom to choose what's best for their families.

As the Speech from the Throne on Tuesday put it so eloquently: "The most important investment we can make as a country is to help families raise their children."

The new Allowance is part of a broader plan to allocate over $10 billion over the next five years to help Canadian families find the kind of child care they want and need.

Toward that end, our plan is also committed to creating up to 125,000 new community-based child care spaces, over the same period.

These are spaces that will be designed, created and delivered in the communities where parents live and work and raise their children - they will be designed not by government who tell us what works best, but by parents who know what works best. These new child care spaces will be flexible and responsive to the needs of working families.

In the weeks and months ahead, we will be working with businesses, non-profit employers and community organizations, in addition to provinces and territories, to draw on their experience to help stimulate and create new child care spaces.

Context

Mr. Speaker, a recent survey by the Vanier Institute of the Family asked parents to rank a series of possible child care options. The most interesting findings of this survey were that parents' first choice for raising their children was their spouse or partner. Second was a grandparent. Third was another relative. Fourth was home-based day care. Fifth was institutional day care. Finally there was the option of babysitting by friends or a hired sitter.

The lesson learned from this survey is clear: parents want choices and they want to make those choices themselves.

Parents want choice and empowerment when it comes to deciding how they can best take care of their children.

Mr. Speaker, no politician or party in the House can claim to have a monopoly on knowing the best child care arrangement for Canada's children. And I believe that no one in this place, no matter what party they come from, can be accused of not wanting the best for our children. These matters are not up for debate. What is up for debate is the path we, as a government, can and should take to help parents do what is best for their children.

A child care solution that only helps some children or some parents is not much of a solution. Canadians want a program that helps all children - whether in a major urban centre, on a family farm, or in an Aboriginal community - so they can reach their full potential.

Mr. Speaker, we all know that families are the foundation of Canadian society. Strong families build healthy communities. Healthy communities are the basis of Canada's economic and social success which, in turn, underlines the quality of life for all Canadians.

What can governments do to support strong families? There is no single answer to that question, because every family is unique, and what works for one will be different from what works for another.

As a government, we recognize this. Our responsibility is not to tell families how to raise their children. It is not to impose a one-size-fits-all solution. It is to respect and trust parents to make the right choices for their children.

And that is what our Choice in Child Care Plan is all about. To give every Canadian family the freedom and opportunity to give their children a healthy start in life - to the ultimate benefit of all of society.

Pre-schoolers and child care options

There are 2.1 million preschoolers in Canada.

Statistics Canada recently issued a report entitled, "Child Care in Canada." It found that only about 15 percent of pre-school aged children are in formal day-care.

The biggest proportion - well over half of all children under the age of six - are actually cared for at home, by mom, dad, grandma or another close relative, or a neighbour.

The report clearly outlines the diversity of the child care choices families make. There are countless other arrangements, including licensed in-home care, informal child care and pre-schools.

The option parents choose depends on many things, including their personal beliefs about child rearing, and the needs of their families as they balance their work and family responsibilities.

Some believe that a formal day care setting will expose their children to valuable early learning and socialization. Others believe that staying home with their children during those first years is the best choice for their family. Others might prefer to have a parent stay at home with their children but need two incomes to sustain their families.

Parents often make choices that require personal sacrifice. They may work opposite shifts to ensure there's always one of the parents at home for the children or may make do with a single income to let the other stay home.

Not all parents can or want to send their child to a formal daycare centre. Often, their hours of operation tend to be best suited to people working Mondays to Fridays, nine to five.

Part-timers, shift workers, and people like farmers and fishermen with largely seasonal work need different, more flexible forms of care.

For the one-third of Canada's population living in rural and remote parts of the country, including my riding of Haldimand-Norfolk, often there are neither the staff nor the resources necessary to operate regular child-care facilities of the sort we might see in downtown Toronto or Montreal.

In short, Mr. Speaker, many Canadians must have real choice in the child care options that meet their needs. This government believes in supporting all parents in their child care choices.

Child Care Allowance

This is why we have come up with the Choice in Child Care Allowance. Starting in July, Canadian families, no matter where and how they live, will receive $1,200 per year for each child under the age of six.

The purpose of this Allowance is to expand their range of options. They may use these funds to offset the cost of day care. Or to hire someone to help out with the day-to-day job of stay-at-home parenting.

Or parents may use the allowance to purchase learning materials such as books, crafts, or a computer program. Or this may allow parents to enrol their child or children in a course such as swimming or music, or a pre-school program.

Some parents may wish to invest some or all of their Allowance into a Registered Education Savings Plan for their child.

This allowance is about helping families in a direct real way. I want to highlight a few things, Mr. Speaker.

First, this Allowance is more than families have ever before received for this purpose. For all of their promises to help parents with their child care needs, the previous government's plan offered nothing concrete for parents.

Our government will offer something tangible to all parents, regardless of their child care choices. This government is not proposing some distant, perhaps unattainable - promise. We are proposing a concrete means of helping all parents with their child care choices. And this support is something that will become a reality in a matter of just three months.

This Allowance will come on top of the $13 billion that the Government of Canada already invests every year in supports for children and families, including the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the Child Disability Benefit, the National Child Benefit Supplement, the Child Care Expense Deduction, extended Parental Leave provisions, and the Canada Learning Bond.

What is important about the Choice in Child Care Allowance is that it will go directly to every family, to do with what they see best for the needs of their family. Whether they work night shifts at a factory or long days on the farm, whether they run a small business from home or raise their kids full time, all parents of young children will benefit.

Because we believe the role of government is to empower parents to make decisions that will be in their children's best interests.

Child care spaces

Another way the Government can help is to ensure meaningful choices for parents who need child care spaces.

That is why we will work with employers, communities and other governments to promote the creation of flexible and responsive new child care spaces tailored to the true needs of the community. And not just a handful of spaces, Mr. Speaker. Our plan calls for $250 million a year for five years to create up to 125,000 more child care spaces.

These spaces could be built by businesses, community groups or non-profit organizations. Anyone who identifies a local need, and sees the value in filling it.

Under our plan, the Government of Canada will be a partner in creating real child care spaces, working with businesses, community groups, or non-profit organizations.

For example, Mr. Speaker, a group of employers - including businesses and non-profit employers - can co-operate to develop a child care centre, in partnership with a community child care organization.

In rural Canada, parents and community organizations in small towns could come together to create a multi-purpose child care centre, offering child care, learning resources and a community centre on which parents can rely.

A non-profit community organization such as a Social Planning Council, United Way, or YMCA, could partner with a number of non-profit employers to establish a new child care program.

Mr. Speaker, these are just a few of the possibilities that our plan will open up. I trust the ingenuity of Canadian communities and Canadian parents to develop new and exciting ways to meet their child care needs. And we want to be a partner in that work.

And how would the plan work? Through incentives. By 2011, our government is committed to investing up to $1.25 billion in the creation of child care spaces alone.

We will be talking to businesses, non-profit employers and communities, in addition to the provinces and territories, to make sure we get this initiative right. We know that our key to success is to ensure flexibility of design. Our goal is to meet the needs of all Canadian parents, regardless of whether they live in a city or a rural community, and whatever their hours of work, which may not fit the nine-to-five model.

This initiative will complement the roles of partners - such as provincial and territorial governments - by helping to create new child care spaces.

Support from many quarters

There is broad support for our Choice in Child Care Plan, because it makes sense. We've heard praise from Canadian parents - from across the country - who have told us it's exactly the kind of flexible, responsive approach they need.

The plan has also garnered the backing of many groups with an interest in child care, including Advocates for Child Care Choice, the Institute for Canadian Values, Kids First Parent Association of Canada, and Prairie Advocates for Childcare Choices.

The premiers of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Alberta have all endorsed the plan.

Significantly, the governments of Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick have already said they will not recover the child care allowance from social assistance recipients, an important step in making this program work - and I am hoping other jurisdictions will follow their lead.

Conclusion

After 13 years of being told about Liberal grand designs for a National Day Care Program, parents were left with nothing but more promises.
Mr. Speaker, on January 23^rd, Canadians voted for a government so committed to child care that it made it one of its top five priorities.

The fact is our government is committing over $10 billion dollars to assist parents with their child care needs; more than twice as much money than the previous Liberal plan.

This money will help parents, giving them real choices in child care, and support investments in the creation of child care spaces.

Our plan will benefit all Canadian families with children under six.

Mr. Speaker, the Speech from the Throne promised a Choice in Child Care Plan, because it is the right thing for Canadian families.

It's about treating all Canadian families the same, whether they live in downtown Toronto, rural Prince Edward Island or Inuvik.

Canadian parents are the real experts on child care. They don't need to be told how to raise their children - least of all by the government.

As a government, our responsibility is to lend a helping hand. To ensure that Canadian families have meaningful choices in child care, and to support them in whatever choice suits them best.

That is also our responsibility as a society.

And so I call on my honourable colleagues to support the government in this most worthy initiative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.