The federal election campaign took on a family focus Wednesday, with the NDP and Liberals pledging billions for childcare and Conservatives vowing to crack down on the youth tobacco market.
At a campaign stop in Kitchener, Ont., Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said if elected, his party would scale up spending on child care spaces to reach $1.25 billion in four years time, money that he said would fund 165,000 new spaces. There were no immediate details about how much they would spend on child care in the three years before that.
It's not, however, an all-out pledge to immediately re-establish the daycare plan the Liberals had just launched when they were kicked out of government in January, 2006 – a concession to tougher times, and the political price they would probably pay if they cancelled the Conservative program that pays parents of young children $100 a month.
Mr. Dion's Liberals committed to keeping the $100-a-month child cheques that Mr. Harper instituted – doing otherwise would be a political risk – and Mr. Dion said the public coffers do not have enough funds to bring the Liberal child care plan back right away.
But he did promise to create a new “Guaranteed Family Supplement” of up to $1,225 for low-income families with children under 18.
“The Liberal Party is offering help to families never before seen in Canada,” Mr. Dion crowed.
Mr. Dion assailed Stephen Harper's Conservatives for abandoning Liberal plans for a national childcare program when the Tories took office in 2006, and promised to renegotiate deals for child-care spaces with the provinces and territories.
“As every parent knows,” he said, “no space means no choice.”
Earlier in the day, NDP Leader Jack Layton made a similar promise, vowing to create 150,000 spaces across the country within the first year of a mandate at a cost of $1.4-billion.
“And as finances permit, we're going to steadily build on that funding until the full program is phased in,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to create a space for every child who needs it.”
Mr. Layton would not reveal what his final price tag would be. Party officials later said the annual funding would reach $2.2-billion by Year 4. But that would only pay for 220,000 spaces, making a truly universal program still a work in progress.
Mr. Layton also said he'd pass a law to ensure the program's survival, similar to the way the Canada Health Act governs medicare. The law would require provinces to follow standards of care and show where federal dollars would be spent.
The idea of a national day-care program has been kicked around for years. Advocates say a nationally subsidized child-care program would help working parents make ends meet and ensure that kids are in a high-quality learning environment.
But detractors say the idea is too expensive and unworkable.
Meanwhile, in Welland, Ont., Mr. Harper announced his government would crack down on the marketing of specialty tobacco products to children. Although so-called kiddy packs of cigarettes are already banned, items like cigarillos are not subject to the same prohibition. The government plans to prohibit the inclusion of flavours, like bubblegum, that are currently added to the products.
The products are already illegal for sale to children under 18.
“Today's announcement is not about curtailing freedom for adults, it's about blocking tobacco marketing to which children are susceptible,” Mr. Harper said. “Canadians expect their government to provide strong consumer protection.”
Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Dion proposed a revamp of the tax system for students and broader access to financial aid, including the introduction of $3,500 bursaries for poorer students.
At a stop at University of Western Ontario in London this morning, Mr. Dion said that he would replace the system of tax credits students receive for things like tuition, books, and the GST with a $1,000 a year credit paid in cheques sent up front every three months.
The current system is too complex, and revolves around students transferring their expenses to their parents for credits on their income tax, Mr. Dion said.
He also promised that if the Liberals are elected, the current needs-based system of student loans would be replaced by universal access to a loan of up to $5,000 a year. He said too many middle-class students are refused student loans because their parents' incomes are judged too high.
“Middle class families are not always able to offer their children the money they need to go to college or university,” Mr. Dion said.
The broader student aid package would cost $500-million over four years, he said.
In addition, he pledged a system of 200,000 $3,500 bursaries for students in low-income families within four years, and access grants of $4,000 for students from groups that are under-represented in universities, like aboriginals or persons with disabilities.
Those bursaries and access grants would be financed out of a an education fund the federal government would build up to $25-billion in 20 years.
