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Despite recent pressure from provincial premiers and opposition MPs, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty flatly ruled out Sunday the possibility the Conservatives will honour the Liberals' national child-care program for five years.
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Flaherty said the Tories will be able to move ahead this spring with the party's major priorities, such as a child-care allowance and reducing the GST by one percentage point, while maintaining a balanced budget.
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It's a decision that will create myriad problems for Canadian parents who will suffer due to a lack of child-care spaces, says the [Monica Lysack of the] Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada.
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Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest have been vocal about the fact they want the Tories to honour the agreement until the end.
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Charest met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper late last week and said he was optimistic some kind of resolution would be reached.
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No matter what, Lysack said, the Tories will do serious damage to federal-provincial relations if they push forward with plans to cancel the five-year child-care agreement.
"This creates a lot of problems," she said.
- reprinted from CanWest News Service