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From Child Care Watch Newsletter, Winter 2009

With $40 Billion dollars in the recent federal budget, how can it be that not one cent will be spent on child care?

If this budget is passed by the House of Commons, parents will be relying on the Ontario provincial government to spend some of the billions allocated to infrastructure on ‘shovel ready’ child care projects.

Under Best Start several Ontario municipalities planned expansion projects that were put on hold when Prime Minister Harper pulled the funding in 2005. With these projects the provincial government can build both physical and social bridges that will: prepare our future workforce, reduce poverty and create new jobs for women, as well as men. Families in Ontario need support and vision. If the Federal government won’t provide it the provincial government must.

It is now time for Ontario’s Government to stop looking for the Federal Government to fund early learning and child care programs. If Dalton McGunity had kept his 2003 promise of $300 million in child care spending, we would have seen improvements instead of wasting time waiting for a Federal government that will not deliver. Early learning and child care is a Provincial responsibility. There is no excuse for a lack of provincial funding.