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This is an open letter to the leaders of Canada's political parties - Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe and Elizabeth May.
Happy birthday Universal Child Care Benefit. What can we show for the past four years?
This week marks the fourth anniversary of the introduction of the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB), a $100 monthly payment for children under six with the stated goal of helping Canadians "balance work and family by supporting their child-care choices."
To date, between $7 and $8 billion in public dollars have been spent on this program, and there is little to show for it.
...
Four years later, despite the sizeable public expenditure on the UCCB, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) continues to rank Canada's child-care situation as one of the worst of its 30 member countries.
Yet there has been no public, performance-based evaluation of how the UCCB funds are used, or whether they, in fact, "help Canadians balance work and family."
Our organizations have long advocated for public investment in a universal system of high quality early childhood education and child-care services, accompanied by an effective national child benefit that lifts families out of poverty.
Four years later, it is clear that the UCCB has abysmally failed to solve either the child-care crisis or child and family poverty in Canada.
What's the solution? Across Canada, a broad consensus that transcends partisan politics, regions, age, income, ethnic and racial groups confirms the need for federal funding to build a child-care system.
Indeed, the December 2009 report of the all-party federal Standing Committee on Finance recommends that the federal government implement a national child-care plan providing high-quality, affordable and inclusive child-care services.
This goal should be achieved through federal transfer payments to participating provinces and territories, and the plan should include measurable targets and time lines.
Today we are writing to urge all of you to "go for the gold" for Canada's children. We are seeking a public commitment from each of you on behalf of your parties to fund a national early childhood education and child-care program in Budget 2010 and beyond.
This strategy will meet policy objective of choice in child care and work-family balance.
* Jody Dallaire is the president of the Child Care Advocacy Association Of Canada in Moncton, N.B. Laurel Rothman is the national co-ordinator of Campaign 2000 in Toronto, Ont.
- reprinted from the Daily Gleaner