Oakville News asked the Oakville and Oakville North-Burlington (ONB) candidates a series of questions. Each candidate was asked to provide concise answers and were given several days to respond. Oakville News does not endorse any candidate.
Should candidates provide answers at a later date, Oakville News will update this post.
Question 6: Daycare is one of the big issues holding back women in the work force - how would you address this issue in Oakville?
Oakville riding
Anita Anand, Liberal:
Every child deserves the best start in life. To make life better and more affordable for families in Oakville, our Liberal plan will:
- Reduce fees for childcare by 50 percent in the next year, which is a net savings of $8,723 for the average household in Oakville.
- Deliver $10 a day childcare within five years or less.
- Build 250,000 new high-quality child care spaces across Canada.
- Hire 40,000 more early childhood educators.
- Finalize $10 a day childcare agreement with the Province of Ontario.
Jerome Adamo, NDP
As an RECE I do have a vested interest because it is fact that businesses and the economy began to re-open, many workers have gone back to work, while childcare providers have had to reduce their capacity due to physical distancing measures.
That is why investment in childcare is more crucial than ever.
Since women make up about half of Canada's workforce, economic recovery is mathematically impossible without women going back to work. But, there's no recovery without support for women, and for many, this includes childcare.
The pandemic saw 100,000 women leave the workforce still staring at the 50-year knowledge that access issues are the number one barrier to women in the workforce.
Naturally, I am personally invested in a roll out which discourages opt outs because of the potential and unnecessary division and multi-tiered approaches to this issue could lead to many inequities being created.
Kerry Colborne, Conservative:
The Conservative childcare plan will enable more women to choose to participate in the workforce.
The Conservative plan will provide direct benefits to parents so they can make the best choice for their own families. Canadian families cannot afford another four years of inaccessible childcare under a Liberal government.
Conservatives will convert the existing child-care expense deduction into a refundable tax credit, paid to families quarterly, to cover up to 75 percent child-care costs for low-income families. Thus, a family with an income of $30,000 would receive up to $6,000 to cover child-care costs, more than the $1,200 they can claim under the refund today, and that a family with an income of $50,000 would get $5,200.
Conservatives will put parents back in the driver’s seat when it comes to making the best choice for their children.
JD Meaney, People’s Party of Canada:
Our policy on taxation is as follows: An individual’s first $15K earned will be tax-exempt. Beyond $15K and up to $100K, the tax rate would be 15%. With this taxation policy, families would have much more income to afford programs like daycare.
Oriana Knox, Green Party:
The Liberal promises about daycare are welcome, but it’s always best to watch what the Liberals do and not just what they say. We suggest careful and thoughtful coordination with the local groups responsible for implementation, such as in Sainte-Martine in Quebec. To promote such coordination, the Green Party of Canada wants to implement something recommended by UNICEF – a national Children's Commissioner, who will work to better coordinate services across the country, and advocate for children.
ONB riding
Pam Damoff, Liberal:
Our government already delivered a $10 a day childcare plan, adopted by seven provinces and three territories, and we’re working hard with Ontario to bring it here. Childcare is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. The pandemic has been called a “she-cession,” with women being disproportionately impacted, highlighting the need for safe, affordable childcare. The closing of schools and daycares forced many women out of the work force. Budget 2021 commits $30 billion over five years and $9.2 billion per year thereafter to build and sustain a high-quality, affordable and accessible early learning and childcare system across Canada for an average of $10 a day. This is feminist economic policy and smart economic policy that will increase Canada’s GDP by 1.2%, allowing more women to return to the workforce. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that boosting women’s participation in the workforce could add $150 billion to Canada’s economy by 2026.
Bruno Sousa, Green Party:
When it comes to day care and the impacts on families and the labour force, we believe that the federal government can and should step up to offer support to the provinces and territories by collaborating in the childcare sector to create a roadmap that provides a comprehensive universal plan to equally address childcare to all Canadians. In doing so we look to strengthen and improve parental and maternal leave as well as increasing our childcare funding to 1% of our GDP. The Goal would be to achieve a long-term strategy to ensure proper guiding principles and standards are put in place for all child care facilities so that we may have a reliable and affordable system. We would ensure that recruitment and retention are prioritized to enhance reliability and avoid staffing issues. To make it easier for child care centers to become operational we would look to provide tax breaks such as eliminating GST on construction costs.
Lenaee Dupuis, NDP:
A national childcare program is critical to the pandemic recovery and lifting women up. A New Democrat government would immediately work with the provinces and other levels of government to build a universal, $10 a day childcare system. We will also create enough spaces, so families don’t spend months on wait lists, and ensure that childcare workers are paid a fair, living wage.
The NDP would also take immediate action to save not-for-profit childcare centres that are at risk of closure with relief funds to re-open spaces that were lost during COVID-19. We’ll also introduce legislation that enshrines Canada’s commitment to high-quality, public childcare in law.
Canadians have been promised childcare by the Liberals for over three decades.
Our national childcare program would bring families relief and would create thousands of good jobs across the country. This is long overdue.