“We promised to take money that was going to lobbyists, researchers and bureaucrats and to give it instead to families, parents, and children. And we have done so. Now every parent of every pre-school child is receiving $100 a month from our government!”
from a speech delivered in Quebec, July 2008
THE TRUTH
The Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) program issues a taxable $100 monthly payment to families for each child under the age of six to help cover the cost of child care. After applying a marginal tax rate of 40%, each family—not each parent—gets to keep $720 a year for child care. On average, that amount won't be enough to pay for your child's care beyond February. You're on the hook for the rest of the year.
Oh yeah, and about taking money from greedy "researchers" to put it in the hands of "families, parents, and children": science and technology "spending has increased every year since 2006" and Canada's Economic Action Plan "announced $5.1 billion in new spending in the areas of S&T infrastructure, research, people and commercialization." This is, of course, the right thing to do, but that doesn't prevent Harper from lying about these government grants when it suits his audience.
Details on the benefit program
KPMG survey of tax rates in Canada
Median daycare costs in Canada, 2005
Spending on science and tech
Stephen Harper dares you to take his crayons. (www.conservative.ca)
Still $100 has not solved the childcare crisis in Canada,many families still do not have access to quality childcare,many are on wait lists.
ReplyDeleteNow the issue dosn't even seem to have a voice.
All other parties except Harper had a decent plan to support a building a childcare system, giving families access to affordable,quality childcare.
Hopefully they don't continue govern even in a minority they seem to have destroyed childcare.