Beyond The Commons

Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Policy alert

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, March 31, 2011 2:35pm - 20 Comments

Michael Ignatieff promises funding for child care and early learning.

The Liberal leader announced a plan to give the provinces $500 million a year for early childhood learning, ramping up to $1 billion a year by its fourth year … He says there wouldn’t be any delay in starting the money because the party worked with the provinces to develop it.

“These programs very consciously and deliberately have been constructed with pre-consultation with provincial authorities and provincial experts because the key thing here is to act. To get it done for Canadian families,” Ignatieff said. We’ll have a flexible fund and we can get this thing moving. We don’t need to have another three or four years of argument and negotiation.” Provincial governments could apply to the fund to pay for extra spaces in daycare and early childhood learning programs or train daycare workers.

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  • Mike T.

    It was always a shame adscam cost Canadian families this important initiative and I am glad to see it revived!

  • OriginalEmily1

    A policy I'm delighted with!

    • Andrew (not PorC)

      This doesn't sound like much of a policy so much as a slush fund for the provinces. I'm reserving judgment until I hear more.

      • OriginalEmily1

        It was all signed and ready to go under Martin, and while I'm sure there'll be some changes in it, it's basically all been laid out for years.

  • Stewart_Smith

    For people interested in the science behind this, there is a considerable body of work by a great Canadian Fraser Mustard that can be accessed here http://www.frasermustardchair.ca/
    under resources.

  • Realistic

    Iggy brought up daycare, everyone take a drink.

  • Thwim

    Stewart: Your link seems to be putting in an extra http. I commented out here so you could edit it still.

    That said.. gah.. way too much reading for right now. Don't suppose you could give a 2-3 line summary?

    • Stewart_Smith

      Does not!

      Fraser Mustard's first career was as a very talented docter. His second was the establishment of the McMaster Medical School's problem-based approach to training. His third was the establishment of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), his fourth was the Founders Network. The idea behind CIFAR was that some problems required interdisciplinary input from the very best minds in diverse fields. One of the outcomes of CIFAR was the establishment of unanticipated links between specific long term issues (certain health aliments, criminal behavior, workplace problems, drug & alcohol abuse) and early childhood nutrition & environment. Much of this made use of the wealth of information made available by the UK Whitehall study.

      While much of this had been speculated, the involvement of economists in the CIFAR studies allowed a true rate of return to be developed for societies that invest in young children. This concept is practically taken as a given now, but was truly ground breading in the late 80's. After he stepped down as President of CIFAR, Fraser became an outspoken critic for practical policy guidelines for implementation of these ideas which are available on the site above.

      Mustard is also indirectly responsible for Chretien's investment in universities especially the CFI & Canada Research Chair Programs.

  • http://www.idrinkinthemorning.com Not_Wherry

    "We’ll have a flexible fund and we can get this thing moving." – We all know how Liberals work with "flexible" money.

    • brooster2

      Same kind of "flexible" money the Cons will need for F35s, only not nearly as much of it.

  • tedbetts

    It's not a long conversation.

    Prime Minister Ignatieff: Here's your share of $500M for early learning.

    Premier: Can I reduce my current spending on early learning by that amount?

    Prime Minister Ignatieff: That's up to you.

    Premier: I'm in.

    • brooster2

      Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the terms of the agreements with the provinces. Are they not cost-shared? If so, I wonder if it's still such a slam dunk with all the provinces now, given that they've piled on quite a bit of debt to weather the economis meltdown since Martin's government negotiated those agreements. I hope Ignatieff sussed out their responses before putting it out there again. All it would take would be one premier to repudiate the arrangement for it to go poof!<i/> in the Liberals' faces during the campaign. Harper would pounce.

      • OriginalEmily1

        You guys worry too much.

      • tedbetts

        I believe this plan doesn't even go as far as the Martin agreements which imposed spending and daycare space minimums on the provinces.

        From what I understand, this is what it is called a "fund" to help provinces finance early learning spaces. "No strings attached" is what I read.

        Meaning the debt of the provinces will encourage them to accept the federal assistance more quickly since it helps their budgets and their promises to their own constituencies.

    • IanBC

      Hate to quibble (because I'd love to see more money for daycare) but in your example nothing increases (spaces, training etc.).

  • Sam

    (CTV.ca News Staff (SPONSORSHIP SCANDAL – TOTAL AMOUNT OF THEFT ) BY LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA…..
    2. Date: Wed. May. 25 2005 7:43 AM ET
    The total amount of money lost in the sponsorship scandal now appears to be $355 million — $100 million more than was originally thought.
    "If you didn't like the sponsorship program to begin with, you've now got about a hundred million more reasons to not like it," CTV's Jed Kahane said Tuesday.
    The new figure of $355 million is from the forensic accounting firm, Kroll Lindquist Avey, which was hired by the Gomery commission to examine sponsorship spending between 1994 and 2004.)

    • tedbetts

      DefCon 6 already?

    • tedbetts

      DefCon6 already?

    • brooster2

      While you're lingering on historic scandals, would you happen to have the numbers for the great CPR scandal?

    • Thwim

      And given that they got turfed out shortly after, are you arguing that the in-and-out grab for taxpayer dollars should result in similar for the CPC?

      Because if you are, I don't think I can argue.

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