Daycare U-turn?

Tories up the ante on child-care spending: Conservative government would budget more than $5-billion, offer tax cuts, credits

In an extraordinary turnabout, the Conservative Party promised yesterday to outspend the federal Liberals dollar-for-dollar on new daycare programs across Canada while offering additional tax cuts for families with children. "I do realize that it is a significant change from our policy in the last election," said Tory intergovernmental affairs critic Rona Ambrose. "It's because we have a great deal of young parents sitting in our caucus and it became a big issue for them." A Conservative government would budget more than $5-billion over five years for child care, in the form of direct subsidies to families as well as for conventional daycare space, Ms. Ambrose said. In addition, the Tories propose to slash taxes for families with young children, and provide tax credits for businesses with on-site daycares. The party also proposes measures that would allow parents to work part-time or take time off to be with young children, Ms. Ambrose said. "It's more than what the Liberals have on the table," she added... The Conservatives have long insisted that Liberal proposals for a national child-care program would be exorbitantly expensive and a bureaucratic intrusion into an area best managed by parents. As recently as last month, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said the Liberals were "creating a bureaucratic daycare system so expensive that young couples won't be able to afford to have children." But, yesterday, Ms. Ambrose said the government isn't spending nearly enough. "The amount of money that's on the table won't even scratch the surface of the daycare needs in this country," she said.

Either Jack Layton is now writing the Conservative platform, or this is a severely torqued story. My impression -- correct me if I'm wrong -- was that the Tories were not opposed to government funding of daycare, but rather insisted that the money should be given to parents, rather than to daycare providers. I don't see much that's changed, here, other than a declaration that they would honour funding agreements already signed with the provinces. But the $5-billion figure may be what's new... MORE: The Star is no clearer -

But on top of honouring any federal-provincial agreements, Ambrose said the Conservative caucus, which is made up of many young parents, has devised an "enhanced policy" that would, in fact, cost more than the $5 billion price tag on the Liberal child-care system. It would abandon Tory promises in the last election to give tax credits to parents. Instead, the new Conservative plan gives parents cash supplements they can use to "access different kinds of child-care choices and we want to offer that choice to parents and for parents that use regulated, subsidized daycare," Ambrose said. "We also think there needs to be also incentives put in place for businesses, or employers to look at creating the infrastructure."

So instead of giving tax credits to parents, they're going to give them cash supplements. Am I missing something?