Cassidy Vaughan wants to have a second child, but says that the possibility of doing it without child care of $ 10 a day is “scary.”
“Child care can drown,” he said. “That’s like a mortgage payment, or you know, a car payment.”
The pharmacy technician was able to return to the workforce last year after finding a place of subsidized nursery for his son, Parker, at the Early Wonders Natural Learning Center on Swift Current, Sask.
Vaughan pays approximately $ 220/month. She estimates that the same place in the nursery would cost at least $ 700/month without the Federal-Provincial program.
With two children, I would be in the hook for at least $ 1400/month, compared to approximately $ 440.
Like many other mothers who work outside the home, Vaughan says that affordable child care, and more specifically the continuation of the nursery subsidy of $ 10 a day, is his main problem in this federal election.
“If this enormous extra payment is made again to people, it will financially paralyze people.”
Federal parts on child care
In 2021, the liberal government, with the support of the NDP, launched an early five -year -old and $ 30 billion learning system to create 250,000 new affordable spaces. He said the plan would reduce the costs of these spaces to $ 10 per day by 2025-26. Each province and territory signed except Quebec, where affordable child care was now available.
The federal government says that families are saving from $ 2,800 to $ 16,200 a year per child, depending on where they live in the country.
Critics say that the plan has not yet fulfilled its objectives due to the shortage of labor, inflation and complexity of the program. In Saskatchewan, parents have complained about long waiting lists and the program that only applies to young children who go to full -time dances.
This year, Ottawa signed agreements with 11 of 13 provinces and territories to extend and raise child care funds to 2031. The federal government says that it is on its way to meet its objectives, with provinces and territories that plan to add 150,000 additional spaces for next year.
The Saskatchewan government says it is still negotiating the terms of the agreement.
The federal conservative leader Pierre Poilievre says that if his party forms the government, he will honor the agreements with the provinces, but criticized the program, saying that he has led to less space care spaces, private nurseries that close and the money was wasted in the bureaucracy.
The conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, when asked Tuesday if liberal programs such as Dental and Pharmacare would be at risk if he is chosen prime minister, he said “we will protect these programs”, before discussing their views on child care.
“We are going to give more freedom and flexibility to parents, suppliers and provinces to support child care of all children,” said Poilievre. He did not explain how.
“Why do we have a worse child care today than when the liberals assumed the position? Because they have imposed the rules from top to bottom, the government, the best rules that have closed the private houses that do not meet the government’s government model.”
As for the NDP, he is claiming credit for the plan and accusing both Pailievre and Carney for planning cuts.
“The new Democrats realized affordable child care after the liberals spent decades making promises,” said the families of the NDP, the children and the Social Development Criticism Leah Gazan in a statement.
It is not necessary to start from scratch
Regina, mother of two, Shayla Dietrich, wants each federal leader to commit in the long term with the children’s care program of $ 10 a day.
She and her husband, Matthew, experienced first hand the financial relief of the subsidized nursery. His son Henry began in a nursery at home at $ 800/month. At that time, Dietrich’s husband had just returned to university and the cost of the nursery was extending its budget.
“We mainly join in savings,” he said.
Shayla Dietrich, 36, pays $ 220/month for her son’s subsidized nursery. She wants federal leaders to commit in the long term with the early learning system and child care throughout Canada.
They managed to take Henry to a subsidized program at the university and its monthly nursery cost fell to around $ 220. Dietrich says it was a change of play.
Now Dietrich is maternity leave for their second baby and the couple is not sure if they will get a second place in the same nursery.
She says that affordable child care is her main electoral problem because it is reduced to everything else in life.
“If I am worried about the economy and my small local businesses, then I am worried about affordable child care because everything is connected at this time,” he said.
He also sees it as a fundamental issue for the equality and independence of women.
“If someone wants to stay at home with their children, that is incredible, and they should be able to choose to do it. They should not be forced to do so because they cannot find affordable child care.”
Dietrich knows that there are problems that affect the current program, but firmly opposes replacing it.
In the last elections, the then conservative leader Erin O’Toole promised to eliminate the program in favor of a fiscal loan aimed at low -income families.
“It is a young program, so it obviously needs work, but also needs a commitment to do the job,” Dietrich said. “I don’t think we need to start again. And I think parents, mothers and women and children, we cannot afford to start again. We need to continue advancing with this.”
Cassidy Vaughan agrees. She says that the early education system is not just about reducing rates.
Recently he joined the Board of the Nursery of his Son and sees a national program as an investment in more spaces and better working conditions and salaries for employees. She says that a tax loan would not do any of that.
“This subsidy of $ 10/day is excellent, but none of that is important if we do not help our [early childhood educators] And have those people who want to work in those places and continue to take care of our children. “
The problem comes home. Vaughan’s husband was an early childhood educator for six years and, ultimately, resigned for financial reasons.
“They did not pay him enough, you know, very little appreciated in general. And so he had to leave that sector because he was simply not working for us financially,” he said.
While he wants to save money, he also wants to invest in an early education system and early care.
