Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
And public transit punishes those who choose to travel by car.
Having a parent stay at home is a luxury for those lucky enough to be able to afford it. Affordable daycare should be available to those parents where both need to work or for single parents.
The Universal Child Care Benefit is $100/month. In Toronto, typical daycare is $81/day.
http://www.toronto.ca/children/mccs/register.htm |
Well, the UCCB can't properly be termed a daycare subsidy--that would be like giving a university student a fiver and calling it a "tuition subsidy." But it is combined with other tax credits; there is also an income-tested provincial daycare subsidy program, though it's not available to most working families (the income limits are very low).
It might help if we just agreed on the principle: affordable daycare, whatever form it takes, would improve the lives of middle-class working families and likely stimulate consumer spending. I doubt anyone seriously contests that: that being the case, the question is simply how to achieve that end.
And really, that's the more difficult question. I think, on balance, a federal daycare subsidy might create some difficult logistical problems. It would make little sense, for instance, to layer it on top of the assistance program currently provided by the province. Also, how do you structure such a program--is it done (as now) in the form of a more generous tax credit, or is it done by the government administering its own daycare facilities? Alternately, should government fund daycares directly, as is the case with public schools?
I don't really find any of those alternatives very satisfying.