I find the Federal Conservative commercial saying Stéphane Dion is going to take away the the oh so generous 1200 dollars a year child care benefit for children misleading and offensive.

What Harper does not say in his attack adds:

1. The child care benefit is only good if you have children under six years old.

2. It only equals 100 a month which really doesn’t amount to much and that’s if you have a child under six.

3. Harper canceled 125,000 child care spaces and broke promises for creating 25,000 new spaces.

4. The Harper attack adds are misinformation because the Liberals are keeping the cheques. Stéphane Dion has repeatedly said that he will not eliminate the $1,200 child care benefit.

My younger sister is a single mom who has to support herself and three small children who are ages seven to ten. Harper’s child care benefit is absolutely no good to her and offers no relief to her and her children.

WHAT DION SAID

The Conservatives hand their whole claim that Dion would cancel child care cheques based on Mr. Dion’s response in a 2006 interview with the National Post before Mr. Dion was elected as Liberal leader. Here is the full exchange:

National Post: Would you cancel the Tory daycare plan? What would you replace it with?

Stéphane Dion: Yes. The Dryden plan was much better. We need child care facilities to provide Canadian parents with real choice. It’s a matter of social justice, but also of sound economics: child care facilities are a good way to encourage flexibility and mobility of our workforce, at a time when, often, two parents are working outside the home. (National Post, October 21, 2006)

REALITY

The question is not specifically about the $1,200 benefit. Mr. Dion is asked about Mr. Harper’s child care plan in general, including the cancellation of Liberal child care agreements with all 10 provinces, and his failed plan to create 125,000 child care spaces.

However, Liberals have repeatedly pointed out, cheques alone are not child care.

Further, since becoming leader, Mr. Dion and the Liberal Party have been clear that we will not take away the $1,200 family child care allowance. The Liberal Party will in fact add a new refundable tax credit worth $350 per child per year and will invest to create more child care spaces for Canadians.

In addition, the Liberal Party has committed to increasing the National Child Care Benefit Supplement and creating a new Guaranteed Family Supplement worth up to $1,225 per child for lower-income families.

The Conservatives broke their promise to Canadian families that they would create 25,000 new spaces annually.

The Liberal Party opposed the Conservatives’ slashing $750 million in annual investments in child care spaces.

And yes, while keeping the cheques, Liberals do intend to replace the Conservative plan to create child care spaces, because their plan didn’t work.

http://www.liberal.ca/story_14440_e.aspx

“Stéphane Dion is the only right choice. All we have to lose, is our environment.” Quote by judge Reed Scott, ex-NDPer.