Double Take
Excuse me while I goggle in disbelief. CTV and the Globe and Mail are reporting that the Liberals are "doubling" their commitment to a national child care plan.
One problem: they aren't! Instead, what they've promised - and this is crystal clear from both articles - to spend twice as much over twice as many years. That is, rather than pledging $5 billion between now and 2010, they're going to pledge $11 billion between now and...2015. Stay tuned for next week they "quadruple" their pledge to $44 billion between now and 2042.
It gets worse. Never mind the fact that the Liberals have promised to fund a national daycare program four elections in a row and broken their promise every time. Never mind that the "Quebec model" of $7 daycare has huge space shortages, with a waiting list consisting mostly of lower and middle income Quebecers - the ones the system was designed to help in the first place. No, now we have the likes of Cherniak wailing that we can't trust people, the rich don't need the subsidy etc etc. Except the same people peddling a nationalized daycare seem trust people just fine when it comes to welfare recipients spending their welfare cheques appropriately; think that rich people should get a subsidy to send their kids to university through universally low tuition; and that while we can't have faith in people to make decisions with their own money, we can certainly trust governments - like the government of Quebec - with a cool billion in cash, no strings attached.
Anyone who thinks the Harper plan is insufficient should be suggesting that it be tinkered with - a bigger subsidy, a cap on the income levels eligible to recieve it, etc. But the Liberal plan is an unmitigated disaster waiting to happen. If ever there was a guarantee about how to encourage scarcity - in this case, spaces in daycare - just defray its cost to a ridiculously low below-market level.
And while we're at it: when on earth did we develop a societal consensus that governments should be running daycare centers!?!
One problem: they aren't! Instead, what they've promised - and this is crystal clear from both articles - to spend twice as much over twice as many years. That is, rather than pledging $5 billion between now and 2010, they're going to pledge $11 billion between now and...2015. Stay tuned for next week they "quadruple" their pledge to $44 billion between now and 2042.
It gets worse. Never mind the fact that the Liberals have promised to fund a national daycare program four elections in a row and broken their promise every time. Never mind that the "Quebec model" of $7 daycare has huge space shortages, with a waiting list consisting mostly of lower and middle income Quebecers - the ones the system was designed to help in the first place. No, now we have the likes of Cherniak wailing that we can't trust people, the rich don't need the subsidy etc etc. Except the same people peddling a nationalized daycare seem trust people just fine when it comes to welfare recipients spending their welfare cheques appropriately; think that rich people should get a subsidy to send their kids to university through universally low tuition; and that while we can't have faith in people to make decisions with their own money, we can certainly trust governments - like the government of Quebec - with a cool billion in cash, no strings attached.
Anyone who thinks the Harper plan is insufficient should be suggesting that it be tinkered with - a bigger subsidy, a cap on the income levels eligible to recieve it, etc. But the Liberal plan is an unmitigated disaster waiting to happen. If ever there was a guarantee about how to encourage scarcity - in this case, spaces in daycare - just defray its cost to a ridiculously low below-market level.
And while we're at it: when on earth did we develop a societal consensus that governments should be running daycare centers!?!
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