Last night the CBC television show Sunday Night ran the following story on the recent child care promises.

Yesterday there were major announcements/promises made by both the Liberals and the NDP in relation to child care and the Canadian Federal election.  I have tried to pull together some resources/articles in this posting in order to further explore these announcements.

From the CBC there is this report:

NDP Leader Jack Layton and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion announced rival child-care proposals on Wednesday as part of a move toward a national daycare program.

Speaking in Kitchener, Ont., alongside former party leadership rivals Bob Rae and Ken Dryden, Dion said the Liberals would spend $1.25 billion a year to create 165,000 child-care spaces across the country.

Dion accused Conservative Leader Stephen Harper of breaking a previous election promise to create 125,000 new child-care spaces.

He also pledged to renegotiate early-learning and child-care agreements reached between previous Liberal governments and the provinces that were scrapped by the Conservatives.

Meanwhile, Layton pledged to spend $1.4 billion to create 150,000 daycare spaces in the first year if his party is elected to government.

The Tories have cited their $100-per-month child benefit and GST cuts as measures that give Canadian families the ability to afford the child-care method of their choice.

But Dion said many parents face a wait time of up to two years to get their children into daycare programs.

"How can they choose if there is no space?" Dion said.

Earlier in the day at a Toronto daycare facility, Layton said more money and spaces would be created in future years of the NDP program as funding permits. But he offered no final cost estimate for his campaign promise.

Layton said new child-care spaces need to be created immediately, as more Canadian families struggle to find affordable and quality care.

"You shouldn’t have to worry about whether your child is going to be safe or get good quality care, or whether you will be able to pay the bill at the end of the month," Layton said alongside his wife, New Democratic MP Olivia Chow.

Layton said the program would be on top of the existing $100-per-month child benefit, most of which he said is clawed back through taxes and lost benefits.

Here is what the Toronto Star is reporting on this today. The Calgary Herald story is here.  National Post story is here.  The Globe and Mail story starts like this:

The federal election campaign took on a family focus Wednesday, with the NDP and Liberals pledging billions for childcare and Conservatives vowing to crack down on the youth tobacco market.  More can be found here.

The Child Care Resource and Research Unit has a good resource page with many links related to child care issues and the Federal election.  You can visit here.

So what do Canadians think about this issue?  Well here is a sample of some of the discussion that has been taking place on the Globe and Mail comments section regarding these announcements:

Wilbur Bloomfield from Canada writes: I was happy to see Layton's announcement today. We've neglected kids – and their parents – in this country for too long. I've seen parents scramble to get care for their kids. And pay through the nose when they do. That's on top of everything else they have to pay for these days. It's good to see that Layton gets it. We do need a strong childcare program.

E F from Toronto, Canada writes: If you decide to have children and are forced to start looking for available daycare spaces and get on wait lists before you even conceive your child, there's something seriously out of wack with the supply and demand ratio. I love how in these conversations, there's always the angry commentary that reads along the lines of "I am not paying to raise your child". Somewhere along the lines people lost sight of what a 'family' is and are treating and reacting to other people's children like they are only tax exemptions and a nuisance to society. You were a child once. How soon you forget.

Rod Smelser from Maple Ridge, B.C., Canada writes: Good quality day care, eventually universal as exists in Quebec, is vital to the nation's economy, productivity and international competitiveness. It would not be cheap, costing about $8 to $10 thousand per child, compared to about $5 thousand per pupil for the elementary and secondary school system. The benefits to our economy are obvious. Keeping skilled workers in the job market, at the jobs they are educated and trained for, instead of having them drop out for several years and work at home as untrained child care providers clearly reduced overall output and productivity per person. This is what we cannot afford, not a $1 or $2 or even an eventually $5 billion program. We have labour shortages, especially in the West. Keeping parents, usually mothers, in the job market and in the jobs for which they were trained can help to alleviate those shortages. But employers, conservative political ideologues, and right wing lunatics all have a better idea. Why not bring in tens, even hundreds of thousands of temporary foreign workers who can be exploited though wages and benefits that are far below Canadian norms and far below what was promised by the employer? If that's the solution you want, you know exactly who to vote for! I will be supporting Jack Layton. It's time we did something effective about Day Care.

rick from river city from Canada writes: Another election, another promise of a national day care program from the Liberals and the NDP. For the Liberals that would be every election since '93. I guess if they never deliver they always know what their plank is for the next election.

free thinker (aka penseur libre) from not far from here, Canada writes: If you're all so big on choice for daycare, why are you so opposed to increasing the number of public daycare spaces? It's so hard and expensive to find space for children in daycare right now. Stay home if you like but neither my partner nor I have any interest in staying home with the children for anything more than a year. I want my kids to socialise and I would be bored to death staying home all that time. That's my choice – call me a bad (future) parent if you want, but I was raised by working parents and it didn't hurt me. I much rather enjoyed playing in the sandbox with other kids than I would have staying home with my mother or father all day. Everyone should be able to make a real choice – stay home and get appropriate tax incentives or send your kids to a daycare and pay an affordable rate. Anything else is driven by ideology not reality.

Amanda Johnson from Canada writes: i don't know whether i want to laugh or cry at some of these posts. it amazes me that some people done truly understand the point behind funding for daycare (federal or provincial) amazingly enough, there are still quite a few people out here who don't make enough money… plain and simple. it's not pretty, its not right, but it's true. minimum wage in manitoba is $8.50. –>> thats $1,360 a month BEFORE TAXES. now after one pays rent, utilities, transportaion expenses (gas or bus, neither is exactly cheap these days) and buy groceries- where is the extra money to actually pay for daycare. another option could be social assistance, so these mothers can stay home and "properly raise their kids" but considering here in manitoba, social assistance only gives a single parent with 1 kid approx $800 per month and that is supposed to cover all expenses including rent. maybe your math can make this all possible, because my math can't figure it out. and we haven't even gotten into clothing and entertainment for the family… so yeah, complain all you awant about the leftist government wanting to spend money on daycare spaces and give money to working families that can't afford to support themselve even while working FULL TIME- i'm glad SOMEBODY has remembered the working poor in the country and realizes that just because we can't afford to make huge donations to anybody's politcal party that we do still have a voice and a choice in how OUR government is run.

So….what do you think about these announcements?  What do you feel should be done to solve the shortage of quality, accessible and affordable child care spaces in Canada?