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Local MP Guy Lauzon defended his government's track record on child care Monday, calling the monthly $100 child care benefit a "realistic" program that is helping to meet the needs of most families.
"I think we're on the right page with it," said Lauzon, who visited A Child's Secret Garden day care centre on Adolphus Street Monday to mark the one- year anniversary of the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB).
Since launching the program in July 2006, the federal government has provided 1.5 million families with monthly UCCB cheques of $100 for every child under six.
Lauzon said families are able to use the benefit in the manner that best suits their needs. Some use it to help pay for child care, while others may use it to help pay for a babysitter, he noted. "They do what they want with it," Lauzon said.
Critics say the Harper government is not doing enough to ensure Canadian families have access to affordable and accessible child care services, and they're quick to point out the UCCB isn't helping to achieve that goal.
Toronto-area MP Olivia Chow, the NDP's children and youth critic, said the child care benefit has nothing to do with providing child care services. What's more, the benefit is taxable, which means many families are receiving less than $100 per month, Chow pointed out.
What's really needed is an investment in new child care spaces, Chow said. This year's federal budget calls for $250 million to be spent on creating new child care spaces, and Chow said that figure needs to grow to $1.2 billion next year.
"That ($250 million) is not enough. There are thousands of working parents desperately waiting for child care," Chow told the Standard-Freeholder on Monday.
Chow also called on the Harper government to establish a national child care plan to ensure there is affordable and accessible child care spaces available to all families.
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- reprinted from the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder