Multi-year funding for child care expected in federal budget
Advocates told to expect a long-term commitment to the long-promised national program.

Thestar.com
By LAURIE MONSEBRAATEN
March 15, 2017

Multi-year funding for child care will be part of next week’s federal budget, according to advocates who say they have been told to expect a long-term financial commitment to the long-promised national program.

But they are concerned the money won’t increase over time, which would make it difficult to grow a system that currently serves barely one in five young children in the country.

“We have been arguing from the outset that if the federal government is serious about meaningful change, that a one-year allocation would not be enough,” said Morna Ballantyne of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada.

“We believe that message has been heard,” she said Wednesday. “But our main concern is that it may be $500 million allocated each year for the next 10 years. And that is a big problem because you can’t expand the system if you don’t increase the allocation on an annual basis.”

Advocates were disappointed last year when the 2016 budget earmarked just $500 million for child care in 2017-18, including $100 million for indigenous child care.

Shortly after Ottawa’s fall economic statement, Ballantyne said she and other advocates were notified by Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos’ office that long-term funding for child care would be part of the government’s 10-year social infrastructure fund.

Toronto-based child care expert Martha Friendly said the minister’s staff made this clear to her during several meetings last fall, including a stakeholder roundtable in Ottawa last December.

“The news we got before Christmas was that it looked like the money allocated for this year would be made long-term,” said Friendly, executive director of the Childcare Resource and Resource Unit.

But $500 million a year over 10 years pales in comparison to the child care commitment of the previous Liberal government under Paul Martin, she noted.

In 2005, the minority Martin government budgeted $5 billion over five years to build a national early learning and child care system with the provinces. That plan - and the funding - was scrapped in 2006 when the Conservatives were elected.

Friendly is also concerned about the way child care is being funded by the current government.

“If you are developing a social program that requires a lot of operating funding, like child care, why is it in the social infrastructure fund?” Friendly said. “And why does it have to compete with housing and all this other stuff. That’s crazy.”

Duclos, who has been promoting the Liberals’ second budget in media interviews across the country this week, said he could not discuss the details before it is released next Wednesday.

But he said he has been working with provinces, territories and stakeholders since February 2016 on a national early learning and child care framework based on the principles of quality, affordability, inclusiveness and flexibility.

“It is a very important agenda,” Duclos said in an interview Wednesday.

“What provinces and territories have told us is that they would like a longer-term commitment in order to engage fully with the federal government,” he said. “We have heard that and we look forward to further steps in that regard.”

Duclos is expected to release the national framework shortly after the budget which will set the stage for bilateral funding agreements with the provinces. Those agreements are expected to be completed by the summer.

“There will be regular opportunities to monitor the progress of these action plans ... and opportunities for stakeholders and partners across Canada to contribute to that important agenda,” Duclos added.

The government also plans to increase flexibility for families using EI special benefits, including compassionate leave and maternity and parental leave, as promised in the Liberals’ election platform. Duclos said.

Although he could not speculate if the changes would be included in the budget, the minister said they would be coming “in the not so distant future.”

In consultations last fall, the government asked Canadians if they support a plan to extend the limit for collecting benefits from 12 months to 18 months by offering either 50 weeks of non-consecutive benefits or continuous benefits at a lower rate.