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SOME PROVINCES WON'T BE PUSHED ON CHILD CARE

Prime Minister Martin madly sprinted across the country in April and early May with his cheque book wide open cutting government cheques for special interest groups in order to shore up his faltering minority government.

High on Martin's give-away list were those provincial governments which were willing to grab some of the $5 billion allotted for child care in the federal budget.

Mr. Martin and Social Development Minister, Ken Dryden, with much fanfare, dramatically signed agreements with the governments of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Everything was going along swimmingly for this pair until they hit Alberta and New Brunswick. Alberta only agreed to sign on in July after securing a key condition that it can use the new federal money for either private or government operated child care and perhaps also for tax credits for stay-at-home parents.

It seems New Brunswick too, had definite ideas of its own on child care. Unlike some of the other more compliant provinces, New Brunswick was not about to be "bought" by the federal government's cheque writing frenzy. Bernard Lord, Premier of New Brunswick raised the politically incorrect question: What about the parent who chooses to stay home? Then, to gasps of horror from child care advocates and Messrs Martin and Dryden, Mr. Lord actually said, "I believe in many cases perhaps the best daycare some children can have is their own parents at home, whether it's the mother of father".

Quelle horreur! Mr. Lord further stated that Ottawa must allow the province some flexibility on how the money is spent and that although his province would use some of the money to increase the number of day-care spaces by 1,500, the issue is not just about day care spaces. The premier stated he believed that the $100 million New Brunswick allotment for child care should also be used for funding parents who stay at home, to buy books and instructional toys for their children, testing for pre-schoolers and autism programmes, for example. According to Mr. Lord, Ottawa's reluctance to be flexible with the funds won't break the child care deal, but improvements must be made to the terms on the table now.

Using child care funds for government operated, one-size-fits-all child-care spaces, provides neither the moral nor financial incentive for parents to care for their children themselves. That, in a nutshell, is what this is all about. Is the state to raise our nation's children or are the parents?

Please write to Mr. Lord, Premier of New Brunswick, and Mr. Klein of Alberta, and thank them for their thoughtful and reasoned position on the issue of child care. It's a shame that some of the other premiers are so greedy that they snatched the cheques, regardless of the heavy cost to their provincial independence and their families.

Mr. Lord and Mr. Klein can be reached at the following address, fax and phone number.

Premier Bernard Lord

General Information: 506-453-2144
Reception: 506-453-2144 (Monday - Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm AST)
Fax: 506- 453-7407
Email: Premier@gnb.ca
Internet Web Site: http://www.gnb.ca/0115/1E.html

Physical Address:
Centennial Building
670 King Street
Fredricton, NB E3B 1G1

Mailing Address:
Centennial Building
P.O. Box 6000
Fredricton, NB E3B 5H1

Premier Ralph Klein can be reached as follows:

Constituency Office:
#127 - 6707 Elbow Drive S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2V 0E3
Calgary.elbow@assembly.ab.ca
e-mail: premier@gov.ab.ca

Legislative Office
#307 Legislative Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6
Tel: 780-427-2251
Fax: 780-427-1349

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