National Daycare

[mikedavid00]

I see that with Harper's Child care plan... it's a hand out to everyone, and most of them don't need it. A hand out at all is trouble in my books.

Well it gets votes and will be brought up in the election.

You have to realize that all families with children are getting this and the Liberals don't want it.

Harper needs to focus an a 'New Canadian' handoout for all Canadians that have been here less than 10 years or 5 years of something.

That will hopefully get him some votes.

[mikedavid00]

No to National Daycare, pay for your own daycare......Taxes already consume more of the average Canadian Family budget than food housing, clothing and transportation combined.....Some 850,000 Canadian working poor families each month use foodbanks to stretch their paycheques, because of high taxes and you want to tax them more so you can have National Daycare.....Shame on you.....

I totally agree. Finally someone who is logical and in the real world.

However I still do support daycare for Canadians. I just don't support it under our policital system at this point in time.

(Americans have daycare in the workplace which is very popular over there).

[Canadian Blue]

Won't public daycare help the low income families since usually both parents have to work at a job in order to make a decent living. I see it as becoming more of a necessity since it's becoming more expensive to live in the cities, and lets face it, most parents will be forced to work two jobs, lower taxes or higher taxes.

[Melanie_]

Worksite child care happens in Canada too. But I don't think it is the wave of the future that Harper thinks it will be. His plan of providing incentives to businesses to start child care centres for their employees has gone no where - I can't picture every WalMart or Canadian Tire across the country opening their own individual child care centre.

[August1991]

In case you aren't aware there are 168 hours in a week. If a child spends 40hrs/wk in daycare, that still leaves 128hrs to be spent with the parents. Even if you take out 8hr/day for sleep, this still leaves 72hrs with the parents. That doesn't include vacations which parents usually spend with their kids. Enough of this bull about the government employee. Or are you saying that kids shouldn't go to school because teachers are government employees? That's nonsense.

In fact, many children spend more than 40 hours/week in day care. They often arrive at 8 am and aren't picked up until nearly 6 pm. Meanwhile, young children typically sleep more than 8 hours.

Children see their parents on the weekend but that's when the parents want to sleep in or get some shopping done. Kids wind up watching TV.

There is something strange about a world which encourages mothers to work outside of the home and entrust their children to the care of other women. Why have children in the first place? Why have a child when the pleasure of raising a child is taken by another person? (I don't mean to sound sexist; just realistic. I was in day care from about 6 months and if I have character defaults, I don't think I can blame the day care centre.)

Indeed, Canadians are not having children. (In a way, this should not be too surprising. When modern government gets involved in something, it is bound to stop working properly. Government is like a curious young boy who wants to figure out how the toaster works. You just know that the toaster will never work the same afterwards.)

The fecundity rate in Quebec (children/woman) is around 1.5 down from over 2.0 in 1970 or 4.0 in 1960. This follows the timeline of government involvement in child care issues. I know that correlation does not mean causation but this result is mirrored elsewhere. (I wonder too about who is having these children?)

In any case, it seems odd to talk about a "national day care" policy for children when Canadians are no longer having children.

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MikeDavid, are you a one-trick pony? Are immigrants also to blame for global warming, breast cancer, third world debt and drivers who turn without signaling?

[Canuck E Stan]

When modern government gets involved in something, it is bound to stop working properly.

I have to agree with your statement totally. Sweden has been the shrine for National daycare for many years. Here is a letter in the Post today from a Swede about National Daycare. Be careful for what you wish for.

Don't mimic Sweden

National Post

Published: Monday, December 11, 2006

Re: The Facts On Child Care: counterpoint by Martha Friendly, Dec. 8.

Ms. Friendly criticizes Andrea Mrozek because she does not support a national daycare plan proposed by Canada's Liberal party. Ms. Mrozek believes such a plan goes against the will of the Canadian people and fails to recognize the risks to children associated with centre-based childcare. She also suggests that the primary beneficiaries of tax-funded, centre-based childcare would be affluent, dual-income families -- not the low-income, disadvantaged families the scheme is purported to benefit.

Ms. Friendly seems to suggest that Canadian parents would prefer to leave their children in day nurseries if they had the opportunity, rather than take care of them by themselves. Honestly, how likely is it that parents bring children into this world only to hand them over to their nearest day nurseries?

The debate on this point reminds me of a Swedish saying, for which I am sure you have an equivalent: "The echo will always reflect your shout," meaning, if you want a particular response (in an opinion poll), just slant your question in that direction and you will get it.

For us Swedes who, 35 years ago, bought into the rotten product that is tax-funded, out-of-home childcare, the debate in Canada is painful to follow. The national daycare plan Ms. Friendly advocates has already been tried in Sweden, where it has made parents and children unhappier and the entire country poorer. Canada should not repeat the mistake Sweden made so many years ago.

Bo C. Pettersson, Vasteras, Sweden.

[mikedavid00]

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MikeDavid, are you a one-trick pony? Are immigrants also to blame for global warming, breast cancer, third world debt and drivers who turn without signaling?

People are having less kids becasue they are too expensive to raise. That's factual. I would love to have my wife stay at home and cook in our 5600 sq ft. house. I would love a Mercede's SUV also. I would love if money was no issue.

I think it's ludacris that anyone would condem a working mother for putting her kids into daycare. Doing this is crazy. It's not that they want to do it, it's that they have to do it in order to make ends meet.

Immigrants are to blame for higher global warming in Canada. fact.

Immigrants actually have higher rates of breast cancer when they come to Canada so yes there is more breast cancer. fact. (this goes for US too. They don't know why cancer rates are higher here. Maybe it's something in our water?)

Immigrants are extrememly poor new drivers and thus they pay higher insurance rates. fact.

[mikedavid00]

Parents who send their children to daycare are NOT their children's primary caregiver.

We'll just have to disagree on that, Charles.

Some 850,000 Canadian working poor families each month use foodbanks to stretch their paycheques, because of high taxes and you want to tax them more so you can have National Daycare

Have you read my posts? It is the working poor that need child care the most - they can't afford to pay the costs of child care to start with, but need good care in order to work. They should be given a subsidy based on their income. It makes much more sense to direct tax money to the people who need it than to those who don't, which is what the Tory "Choices" in child care does now.

That's funny. The law says that the mother is the primary care giver. And the kids are with the parents the majority of the time. When sleeping doesn't that count for anything? There is a family unity happening subconcsiously.

I think everyone should get it becuase rich families are very rare in Canada to be honest. We're talking 1% of Canadians. Also, people who get paid more get taxed more.

I feel that our country shoudl have quality, learning style daycare with the best teachers. Unfortunately, it's not financially feasable and especially with 300,000 people a year coming here that have not paid into these services.

As far as the torries $100, I don't feel it's the gov't roll to be doing this. However, I think a lot of people are over estimating how many wealthy there are in Canada. Eveyrone can use $100.

[August1991]

Immigrants are to blame for higher global warming in Canada. fact.

Immigrants actually have higher rates of breast cancer when they come to Canada so yes there is more breast cancer. fact. (this goes for US too. They don't know why cancer rates are higher here. Maybe it's something in our water?)

Immigrants are extrememly poor new drivers and thus they pay higher insurance rates. fact.

I give up.

I suppose you'll also blame immigrants for the high price of popcorn at cinemas.

[mikedavid00]

Worksite child care happens in Canada too. But I don't think it is the wave of the future that Harper thinks it will be. His plan of providing incentives to businesses to start child care centres for their employees has gone no where - I can't picture every WalMart or Canadian Tire across the country opening their own individual child care centre.

True. I was just mentioning that it's really big in the US. Almost each work building has a daycare in it. That sounds perfect to me because you can see the kids at lunch etc. The World Trade Center even had a daycare. Why don't we have there here in Canada? Ah yes.. the Canadian attitude is to not look after ourselves. Instead, we promote a refugee with known ties to terrorists and hope he gets $37 million of our taxes.

Take a look at how Idaho does it (I just randomly picked a US state):

"Idaho Child Care Program: The Department also provides child care assistance to low-income, working families through the Idaho Child Care Program (ICCP). ICCP is based on family income, and subsidizes child care payments on a sliding fee scale. Learn more about the program here."

Sample

Name of Parent: Jones

Name of Provider: Happy Days Day Care

Month: May

People in Household: 4

Monthly Income: $850

Child in Care: Judy

Judy's Child Care Amount for May: $250

Child in Care: James

James' Child Care Amount for May: $200

Total Child Care for May: $450

Total ICCP Payment: $400

Parent Co-Payment: $50

Also you can pick your own provider. Idaho will give you payments. They base how much money you get by this schedule. I like this system..

http://www.healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/Desk...version=Staging

They also have a daycare recognition program! Wow that's such good coverage! =)

http://idahostars.org/

Wow!

I also checked out Alabama and they'll give you almost $100 a week for a daycare spot of your choice! But that's only if you meet their sliding income scale like the above.

I feel that these are the best systems. It's unreal how strong the US social systems are.