Thank you.
My apologies for being late.
I, too, appreciate the opportunity to be here.
The new federal Conservative government says it developed this year's budget much like a typical Canadian family would approach their own budget. Canada is currently the economic equivalent of a family that has a steady income, a decent home, pays its bills on time, and holds a reasonable mortgage that is regularly paid down. Given these financial strengths, we at the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada believe that as a key investment priority, a typical Canadian family would now ensure that all of its children are well cared for and educated.
Canadian families know that such an investment provides the best start for children now while it pays dividends for the future. So why is this federal government cutting funds that were specifically dedicated to developing quality early learning and child care services in communities across Canada? It's not because our country can't afford child care. As everyone knows, it provides a positive and prompt return on our investment. It's not because Canada already has a decent system in place, because study after study shows that outside of Quebec, Canada's inability to ensure families access to high-quality early learning and child care is an international embarrassment.
The federal Conservatives have made it clear that they believe there is little role for their government to support the care and education of our nation's greatest asset. This federal government is cutting funds that would support community-based child care because they think someone else should do it. The message seems to be that businesses and provincial and territorial governments, child care workers, and volunteers all need to do much more for families with much less support from the federal government. They're telling Canadian businesses that it's now their responsibility to deliver child care programs that meet all of their employees' child care needs--an idea that businesses, incidentally, are strongly objecting to.
Finally, by eliminating provinces and territories from the equation, the federal Conservatives are undermining provincial-territorial responsibility for ensuring that quality child care services are developed according to their communities' needs and priorities. Ironically, the provinces and territories are also being set up as the inevitable go-to guys when reality sinks in and businesses realize they can't build and sustain child care on their own.
The provincial and territorial ministers for child care who met here in Ottawa earlier this week expressed a united position on this issue. They have agreements that work, and they want the current funding commitment to continue.
It's not only the $1 billion cut that frustrates them. They're also frustrated by the lack of understanding from this government of how child care operates, as well as the inadequacy of a program whose aim is nothing more than to create empty spaces that will probably close because of the lack of operational funding.
In effect, the new federal government's approach to child care in this year's budget is akin to our equivalent moderate-income family's saying, “Sure, we can afford to fund our children's care and education, but we think someone else should do it for free”.
Risking their children's future is hardly the approach of the typical Canadian families that we talk to every day. Families recognize the important role that early learning and child care plays in supporting young families in their important role of raising our youngest citizens. Families are counting on our federal government to support parents and children by maintaining and building on the existing investments for early learning and child care services in communities across Canada.
Thank you.