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Canadian National Daycare Program Fiasco

'Family Friendly Tax Credit' proposed as alternative

OTTAWA, March 9, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Originally touted at $2 billion, the price tag for the Liberal government’s proposed daycare program has already jumped to $5 billion, with some analysts suggesting $15 billion or more annually is actually nearer the mark. These facts and others were publicized yesterday in a Communiqué from the Christian Heritage Party (CHP).

The CHP charges that the Liberal policy "for the Sovietization of Canada’s children" and "dishonestly presented in terms of 'children’s needs'—is really a massive giveaway of taxpayers’ money to a self-serving education lobby". CHP leader Ron Gray says the program "will be harmful to children and families, it will increase social service costs, and it will burden the average Canadian family with about $1,500 or more of additional taxes every year".

The Communiqué noted that a Harvard Longitudinal Study found that daycare children are significantly disadvantaged in later life by the inability to form psychological attachments. The younger the age at which children are put in daycare, the worse is this effect, the CHP document said.

A Guelph University study of daycare in Canada found that most daycare centres merely “warehouse,” the CHP release said. “That’s a far cry from the ‘early childhood development’ label being slapped onto the proposed federal largesse to the day-care industry,” the Communiqué said.

A recent poll by the Vanier Institute of the Family showed that nearly 100% of families would prefer to care for their children at home if they could afford to. Rona Ambrose, Conservative MP for Edmonton-Spruce Grove criticized the Liberal daycare program last month in the House. “Nine out of ten Canadians feel that in a two parent situation, ideally one parent should stay at home to raise the children,” she said. “The [Vanier] study also indicated that almost all employed mothers would work part-time if they could afford it, as would 84% of fathers. Parents surveyed indicated that daycare would be their last choice for child care.”

The CHP instead advocates a 'Family Friendly Tax Credit' "to enable one parent to stay at home if he or she wishes to".

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Study Links Child Aggression to Time in Day Care
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/aug/03082108.html
Conservative Woman MP Slams Liberal Party’s Child Care Plan as Sexist
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05021605.html

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