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The provinces and territories will divvy up $250-million in the coming fiscal year for the creation of child-care spaces that are "responsive to the needs of parents and are administered in an efficient and accountable manner."
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The government will also continue to pay $100 a month, which is taxable, to all children under age six at an annual cost of $2.4-billion.
The Conservatives had originally earmarked the $250-million for tax incentives and grants to businesses and other organizations that created spaces. They were to start rolling out April 1.
The change in course, reported by CanWest News Service last week, comes after months of appeals from the provinces and child-care advocates not to rely on businesses to create child-care spaces.
Provincial ministers had pressed the government to restore the almost $3.5-billion in child-care funding promised by the former Liberal government over the next three years.
Failing that, they said, the Harper government should at a minimum agree to split the $250-million it had planned to spend on tax incentives among the provinces and territories to support existing child-care systems.
The $250-million will be divided on a per capita basis. Under the formula, British Columbia will get $33.1-million, Alberta $25.9-million, Saskatchewan $7.5-million, Manitoba $9-million, Ontario $97.5-million, Quebec $58.5-million, New Brunswick $5.7-million, Nova Scotia $7.1-million, Prince Edward Island $1.1-million, and Newfoundland and Labrador $3.9-million. The three territories will get a total of $700,000.
The budget also said that starting in fiscal year 2008-09, child-care funding will be rolled into the Canada Social Transfer. It said funding will grow by three per cent a year after that because of the automatic escalator clause in the CST.
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In a nod to its original plan, the budget also promises a 25% investment tax credit to businesses that create child-care spaces in the workplace. The maximum credit would be $10,000 per space created.
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- reprinted from the National Post