Harper Conservatives celebrate first anniversary of failed plan
Monte Solberg, minister of Human Resources and Social Development, is in Winnipeg today, holding a celebration of the so-called “Universal Child Care Benefit”.
“I’m not sure what there is to celebrate,” said CUPE National President Paul Moist. “This plan hasn’t delivered a single child care space.”
“To come to a city where there are close to 15,000 children waiting for child care spaces and hold a celebration is galling,” Moist continued. “Manitoba had one of the best plans for developing a universal non-profit child care system, until the Conservatives canceled the federal-provincial child care deals.”
Rather than address the crisis-level lack of licensed and regulated child care spaces, the Conservative government has decided instead to issue cheques for the taxable amount of $100 to families with children.
In Winnipeg alone, there are more children waiting for child care than there are currently in child care.
“If Monte Solberg is truly looking for something worth celebrating, his government has to first pass Bill C-303, the Early Learning and Child Care Act, and reinvest the money that’s needed to build a cross-Canada system that works,” concluded Moist.
-30- For more information contact: Paul Moist, CUPE national president, 613-558-2873 (cell.); Audra Williams, CUPE communications, 613-236-4048 (cell.)