Description:
The 2012 Alternative Federal Budget, A budget for the rest of us, calls on the Government of Canada to scrap spending cuts and table a detailed budget that restores Canadians' trust in the economy, public institutions, and democracy. The AFB notes that "we can invest in public programs, job creation, and infrastructure to the benefit of all Canadians and still balance the books". Calling for halting Canada's slide to growing inequality, the AFB makes proposals on several fronts simultaneously: increasing revenue generation and redirecting public spending.
A "national accessible" childhood education and child care program is among the AFB's "Top 10 ways to make the federal budget work for the rest of us", with a policy framework for federal leadership in collaboration with provinces and territories. It would begin to create an accessible child care program nationwide based on "Public plans; Public expansion; Public funding; and Public monitoring" this year with an additional $1 billion federal expenditure, rising to at least 1% of GDP over the next decade.
The AFB also proposes to reallocate the current annual federal expenditure for the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) of almost $2.5 billion to a child care program, and the Canada Child Tax Benefit, arguing that "there is neither evidence that the considerable public expenditures on the UCCB furthers ECEC goals of improved access and quality nor is the UCCB an effective income support program that can help lift families with children out of poverty".
In this year's AFB, the issue of child care is addressed in a number of chapters, in addition to the Early Childhood Education and Care chapter, with recommendations in the chapters on Aboriginal Women, Poverty Action and Income Inequality, and Women's Equality.