Child Care in Canada

Stephen Harper gets it right Excerpts from http://torontosun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Copps_Sheila/2005/12/07/pf1341719.html
By SHEILA COPPS

OTTAWA -- As a one-time single mom who always worked outside the home, I have had personal experience with the trials and tribulations of Canada's patchwork child care system.Unlike most parents, I was wealthy enough to pay the full cost of care for my daughter, Danelle. As a government employee, I was also one of the lucky minority of parents whose children have access to workplace daycare.
Almost every parent who works outside the home still struggles with the challenge of child care. Most do not qualify for subsidies. Try finding care for a child if you work the night shift. You choose between the disruption of picking the child up in the middle of the night or the flexibility of a caregiver in your home. All these problems are what real parents face in the real world....

The beauty of the child care plan announced this week by Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is that it empowers parents to make choices that fit their needs. The $100 per month per preschool-age child may be just what a family needs to survive on a single-earner salary (with the other parent staying home to provide care). As for wealthier parents like myself, this additional income would be balanced at tax time.

Prime Minister Paul Martin characterized the Tory plan as "maybe a kind of baby bonus." His own plan -- for which he announced billions in additional funding yesterday, would transfer $11 billion by 2015 to provincial governments for child care. The problem, in my view, is that there are no national standards. The last agreement actually saw some provinces rake in millions in cash without creating a single new daycare space. The Liberal plan is a cash cow for governments while families are cash poor.

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Canadian Federal Elections -2005

Conservatives Nominate Municipal Prosecutor and former Captain in the CF Reserves Troy DeSouza, in Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca
From:http://www.troydesouza.ca/
 

PRESS RELEASE

Former Army Officer and current municipal prosecutor Troy DeSouza will lead the Conservative team in Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca! With less than two weeks before the nomination, local members and potential competitors rallied around Troy DeSouza who they believe will win the riding for the Conservatives in the upcoming Federal election.

Troy's family moved to Victoria in 1979, and he and his wife, Kismet, both work and have strong family roots in the community. Troy and Kismet are proud parents of their daughter, Ava.