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The federal Liberals are almost ready to deliver a national child care program, which critics say is the biggest outstanding commitment from the government's 1993 Red Book.
Social Development Minister Ken Dryden said Wednesday that few significant hurdles remain to the government's plan to put $5 billion into a national child care program over the next five years. The plan was a key plank in the party's election platform last year.
The federal and provincial ministers are meeting Feb.11 in Vancouver, and Dryden said he believes governments are ready to make child care a priority across Canada.
"What we are hoping at that time is to have an agreement, so then it's just a matter of getting on with it," said Dryden, who was in Edmonton to meet with Alberta's Children's Services Minister Heather Forsyth.
He said getting a deal is crucial if it is to be included in the next federal budget, expected in late February or early March.
Universal day care has vexed five of Dryden's predecessors since former prime minister Jean Chretien first promised it in 1993. The plan has long been a sticking point in federal-provincial relations. While most provinces acknowledge the need for better child care funding, they are steadfast in refusing to have a one-size-fits-all child care system imposed on them by Ottawa.
Dryden said he expects next month's meeting will be a turning point.
"People really are heading in the same direction," he said.
But Forsyth said she is only "somewhat optimistic" that next month's meetings will result in a significant breakthrough. Following her meeting with Dryden, she said the province will need greater assurances that Albertans will retain the freedom to choose between for-profit and
not-for-profit day care.
She said the provincial government wants the latitude to determine how the federal funding, since it is not sufficient to cover the day-care needs of all Albertans, can be best applied.
The test of whether a deal is possible next month, some government insiders say, is whether the funding model that led to the landmark health deal in October can be applied to child care proposals.
Failure to reach an accord could carry a heavy political price. According to a national study conducted in 2002 by the Canadian Child Care Federation and Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, 90 per cent of Canadians favour some form of nationally co-ordinated child care system, and 89 per cent agree that quality child care is essential to Canada's prosperity.
The president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees has been pushing for universal day care.
Dan MacLennan hailed Dryden's optimism and perseverance, adding that governments have no business using what is in the best interests of children to wage turf wars.
"I think it's realistic that we can have universal child care," said MacLennan. "If the feds are interested in funding things, I would hope the province would be interested in it. It's a major issue for people with families who want to work. They need affordable, safe day care and any sort of improvement in that area would be an important step forward."
Dryden said the fact that 70 per cent of women with children under six years old are working means no government can afford to shirk its responsibility to the parents and their children to offer good quality, safe and affordable child care options.
"Child care is increasingly part of the way we live in this country, and so much of the response (from provincial counterparts) I am getting now is just that 'it's time ... it's time,' " Dryden said.
- reprinted from the Edmonton Journal