ANDY SCOTT REPLIES TO ONE OF THE QUESTION FROM A READER!!!!

BOY???? I TRULY HATE THOSE GLASSES!!!..LOL....HERE'S THE QUESTION AND ANSWER!!!

Maybe the other parties wish to reply to Andy's comments???


1-In an interview with an Ottawa radio station Ken Dryden compared stay at home parents to parents who keep their sick children home instead of taking them to the doctor.

Given those comments and what ultimately transpired, why didn't the Liberals choose
to support stay at home parents as part of their day care plan?

Andy's answer is inside the blog!!!!


Hi Charles,

Here is the answer to your first question and I'll get something to you
soon re: the second question.

I hope this answers some of your reader's concerns.

Jen


1) Child Care.
The Conservatives say that the Liberal early learning and child care
plan lacks flexibility and does nothing to offer choices to
single-income
families, where one parent chooses to stay home.

The fact is the Liberal plan provides increased options for all
Canadian families. Specifically, it will help to ensure high-quality,
affordable programs exist for stay-at-home parents who wish to send
their
children to educational programs on a part-time basis.

The Liberal government also provides assistance through the tax
system for one-income families. For instance, the Canada Child Tax
Benefit
(CCTB) provides a tax-free monthly payment to help low-and
middle-income
families with the cost of raising children. About 80 per cent of
Canadian
families benefit from the CCTB.
The Liberal government also brought in the CCTB Supplement, an
additional benefit for families caring for children under the age of
seven
at home. The benefit currently provides $243 per year for each child,
and
last year it helped support 2.4 million children.

We also created the National Child Benefit, the most significant new
social program since medicare. The NCB aims to prevent and reduce the
depth
of child poverty and ensure families will always be better off as a
result
of working.
Payments under the NCB are projected to reach $10 billion annually
by 2007-08, by which time the maximum benefit for a two-child family
will be
$6,259 per year. About 40 percent of Canadian families with children
benefit
from the NCB.

The Liberal government has a history of offering tangible benefits to
Canadian families. We have:
- doubled parental benefits under EI - from six months to a year - so
that new parents can stay home with their infants for longer;
- raised the Child Disability Credit by more than 15 percent to $2,000
from $1,700;
- made allowances for certain adoption expenses, up to $10,000; and
- reduced the tax burden for couples where one of them has little or
no income and for single parents with eligible dependents.

It should be noted the Liberal government has full funding Early
Learning
and Child Care agreements in place with three provinces, and agreements
in
principle with seven more. These commitments are already making a
tangible
difference.

The Conservative Approach to Child Care

Stephen Harper announced his party's child care platform, claiming
the Conservatives will address child care needs by offering parents a
$1,200
grant and create child care spaces by offering tax incentives for
capital
investments, which he says will create 125,000 spaces per year.



Here are some things you should know about the Conservative approach:

. Stephen Harper says he would only keep the agreements signed by the
Liberal government and provinces in place for one year. This means
child care funding for provinces and First Nations would be cut by
$4.3
billion.

. Under Harper's plan, more than 450,000 fewer child care spaces would
be created over the next five years.

. Harper claims his plan would create 125,000 spaces a year, but the
average cost of a high-quality, regulated child care space is $8,000.
Unless Harper is triple-bunking the toddlers, he has exaggerated the
number of spaces to be created by 400 percent.


. The Harper proposal could create about 31,250 regulated spaces per
year, whereas the Liberal plan will create about 625,000 spaces over
5
years.


. In Canada, 84 percent of families with children have both parents in
the workforce and 70 percent of women with children work outside the
home. Harper's proposal would not create choice for these families.
It
would give them $100 per month, which would pay for about 3 days of
child care in most provinces.

. Harper's proposal also does not include any early learning or
development component. This is a key focus of our child care plan.