08) ABOLITION OF UNIVERSAL CHILD CARE SYSTEM IN QUEBEC: AN ATTACK AGAINST ALL CANADIANS

 

Special Resolution adopted by the Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, June 13-14, 2015

 

            The Communist Party of Canada condemns the abolition by the Couillard Government of the system of universal child care in Quebec, formalized with the adoption on April 20, under duress, of the mammoth Bill 28, true Harper-style legislation.

 

            Changing laws and 68 regulations to impose more fiscal measures of austerity by the Liberal government, the Bill, inter alia, amended the costs of universal child care, which was previously at $7.30 per day per child, by varying it according to household income. Parents must now pay amounts ranging between $7.30 and $20 per day, per child to have access to childcare. Over 70% of Quebec households are thus affected by a rate increase that will allow the government to save perhaps less than $200 million.

 

            This measure totally violates the promise made by the Liberals during the last election campaign, not to increase child care costs unlike the PQ government had announced. But the Liberal’s lie goes much further since not only are they increasing the rates, but by ending the single price, they will also break with the principle of universality maliciously introducing the principle of "user fees” so cherished by neo-liberals.

 

            At the same time, the Liberals also want to increase the financial attractiveness of unsubsidized private daycare centers, where many companies find themselves "friends" of the Liberal Party. The vice-president of the Quebec Alliance of unsubsidized private daycare (AQGPNS), Khalid Daher, has openly welcomed the government's decision. MNA and co-spokesperson of Québec Solidaire, Françoise David, has criticized the Liberal government for this new privatization which turns child care into a "commercial" network at the expense of workers.

 

            The austerity measures immediately and predominantly affect women, both as workers in the public sector who lose their jobs, and as those primarily responsible for children and the families for whom these services are intended. But rising daycare rates will also "encourage some mothers to give up their jobs to stay at home," as stated by the President of the Conseil du Statut de la Femme, Julie Miville-Dechêne during the parliamentary committee hearings on the bill. Indeed, all studies show that an increase of childcare costs has an impact on the place of women in the workforce, she noted. This is certainly a significant retreat for the condition of women and women’s equality in Quebec.

 

            Canadian women have been demanding for decades the creation of affordable child care networks. A report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, shows that Canadian parents, not including Quebec, are forced to spend a major part of their annual income on basic child care expenses. In Ontario, for example, parents must dedicate more than a third of their annual income, or about $ 1,700 per month per child in the Toronto area. Meanwhile in Quebec, thanks to the public child care program at $7, women on average are paying 5% of their income. Since the establishment of this program in 1997, work has become more accessible to tens thousands of Quebec women.

 

           Quebec, the only province where women, parents and the working people had managed such a breakthrough, was an inspiring model for all people across Canada, but very disturbing for big business. This illustrates what interests serves Couillard government. His austerity policies are consistent entirely with those of the Harper Conservatives and other provincial governments which operate a general lowering of living conditions for the working class and popular strata across Canada.

 

            The Communist Party demands and struggle for the establishment throughout the country of a universal, public not-for-profit system of quality child care, affordable and accessible. 

 

(The above article is from the August 1-31, 2015, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)