Greens put children first

Green Leader Elizabeth May is very proud of the fact that all Green Party policies are formulated through the lens of “Does it address the needs of children?”  A key part of taking care of our children is ensuring Canadian families have access to affordable, high-quality child care as an aspect of early childhood education. 

“Canadian families need flexibility so that they can maximize the amount of time together for parents with young children,” said May. “A cheque for $100 a month does not begin to address these needs when some people are paying more than a thousand dollars a month for childcare.”

The Greens are committed to a high-quality federally-funded child care program in Canada, accessible to any family that wants to place children into early childhood education. “Greens will work to restore and revamp the 2005 agreement reached between the federal government, provinces and territories to achieve a universal access child care program in Canada,” said May.

Part of the Green vision for Canada’s universal child care program is to provide workplace child care spaces wherever possible. Workplace child care has been shown to improve productivity, decrease employee absenteeism, ensure quality care for children (because parents can drop in at any time to see their young children), and permits longer breast-feeding of infants. Work-place child care spaces create other benefits, recognizing the emerging literature that children benefit enormously from time with their mothers, especially when very young.

The beneficent spiral of providing workplace child care also includes making it easier for many working Canadians to use mass transit. When parents and children travel to the same destination, the trip can often be made in less time on public transit, enabling parents to spend more time with children.

The Greens would accelerate the creation of workplace child care spaces through a direct tax credit to employers (or groups of employers in small businesses) of $1500 tax credit/child per year.

“What every parent wants is more time with their children and also to feel secure that their children are being taken care of properly and given every opportunity to succeed,” said May. “The federal government should be investing in children—they are our future.”

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Kieran Green
Director of Communications
C: 613-614-4916
Kieran.green@greenparty.ca