MEAT
MISSING FROM LIBERAL CHILD CARE PLAN: NDP
QUEEN’S PARK – The Liberal government’s recently announced child care program did a double disservice to parents by first raising their expectations and then dashing their hopes, Hamilton East MPP Andrea Horwath said today in the Ontario Legislature.
Horwath criticized the government for breaking its promise to introduce regulated child care to 330,000 Ontario children. Last Thursday, Family and Children’s Services Minister Maria Bountrogianni unveiled a drastically watered-down child care pilot program in just three communities.
To avoid close scrutiny of the program, the government deliberately avoided bringing it to the legislature, Horwath suggested. She pointed out that, across the province, child care won’t be fully available for 15 another years.
“Your
timetable’s so slow that a child born today will be old enough to
baby-sit the next generation of children by the time your program kicks
in,” Horwath said in Question Period.
“Have you
set the rates for parental subsidies? No. Have you allocated any new
provincial money? No. Have you committed to a not-for-profit system? No.
Did you do what you promised? No.”
Horwath
noted that the provincial government has failed to partner with the
federal government and invest provincial dollars to bring the popular,
Quebec-style, not-for-profit system of regulated child care to Ontario.
The NDP
children’s issues critic described the government’s hodgepodge of
nebulous parental subsidies and trial programs as “a very bad case of
lunch bag letdown.”
“Ontario
parents expected the full menu, not crumbs,” Horwath said. “After your
announcement, their raised expectations became dashed hopes.”
Horwath said
the minister’s refusal to specify the allocation of provincial dollars
slated for regulated child care in 2004 this year means the Liberals have
no intention delivering what Dalton McGuinty promised prior to being
elected premier.
