The Kingston Whig Standard

Re: "Daycare funding dries up," March 10. Kingston families are right to expect the McGuinty government to provide the needed funding for child care. After all, that was a promise that Dalton McGuinty himself made when he was vying to become premier. "Ontario will have a sustainable child-care system," he boasted in 2003, while pledging to make a $300-million investment in child care. It is long past the time when that McGuinty promise should have been honoured. First and foremost, the provision of child care and subsidies for low-income families is a provincial duty.

The emerging crisis, not just in Kingston but across this province, is one of the McGuinty government's own making. Instead of investing provincial dollars, the McGuinty Liberals relied on annual federal funding, which has now ended and has left a $63.5-million gap. It is incumbent on Dalton McGuinty to make good on his promise of long ago and meet his government's commitment so that no Kingston child loses access to quality, affordable, community-based child care.

New Democrats call on the premier and his ministers to help municipalities preserve their non-profit child care spaces by earmarking investments to sustain Best Start programs.

Andrea Horwath,
MPP, Leader, Ontario's NDP
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