RSSDoes Canada need a federal child care program?
Feb 05
An example of why we need a national daycare program
I’m just starting to re-think this now, since it popped up again. I guess it depends on what the details of such a program would look like. In Canada we generally accept that health care is important enough that the government needs to be in control and I’d like to think through whether daycare warrants the same extreme.
But, one of my initial reactions, similar to a comment on Scott’s post linked above, is why does this need to be federal? Quebec already has a program, although I don’t know how good it is considered to be. Further, the requirements for a program would likely be pretty different when comparing southern Ontario to small rural towns on the coasts.
Why can’t this be a provincial issue?
Any examples of other countries that do this well?
Feb 05, 2010 @ 15:51:54
Good grief. It was provincial. The Fed Liberals provided consultation and developed a ELCC framework agreement on some key principals and rolled funding to the provinces, who expanded and rolled out their own programs. Some provinces focused on child care with others focusing on early learning through current education models (e.g Ontario, BC), etc. It was all individual anyways.
Feb 14, 2010 @ 16:10:52
You state that heath care is important enough to need federal, but is our children any less important?
Don’t get me wrong, but I do agree, these issues should not be the responsibility of the federal government. Who knows better what services and products are need, than the area that the services and products are for? As you stated, rural communities have different needs than largely populated areas.
I feel thar you can’t keep one program federal, and not another. All social programs or none.
Tracy