LILLEY: Trudeau daycare offer shortchanges Ontario by billions
The Trudeau government is desperate to sign a childcare deal with the Ford government in Ontario or turn the issue into a political weapon.
That much has been made clear as Karina Gould, the newly-minted minister of Families, Children and Social Development, going on an all-out attack against the Ford government with the media.
“To be perfectly honest, I’m not entirely sure,” Gould told the Toronto Star the other day when asked why Ontario has not signed onto a deal for $10-a-day childcare.
The statement was either a flat out lie or proof Gould had not read a single page of her briefing books since being appointed minister two weeks ago. The Ontario government has been clear they’re open to a deal with the federal government, but it needs to address funding and sustainability concerns.
You can argue there is only one taxpayer but if one level of government promises a service and promises to cover half the cost and then doesn’t, budgets can fall apart quickly. Health care was supposed to be a 50/50 split between the feds and the provinces but now the feds only account for about 22% of the total bill while trying to dictate the terms of the deal.
The concern is that the childcare deal, as currently structured, could end up the same.
The feds continue to claim there is $30 billion over five years on the table to fund childcare deals with the provinces but this is incredibly inaccurate. First off, the actual total is $29.8 billion, but after taking out funding for Indigenous childcare the total becomes $27.2.
