Canada's NDP

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September 5th, 2019

Trudeau Refuses to Take on Conservative Premiers on Child Care

This morning at the Toronto Star editorial board, Justin Trudeau dodged repeated questions from journalists on his refusal to commit to a national affordable child care program.

When asked why the Liberal government wasn’t taking action on child care, Trudeau passed the buck to provincial governments:

“We can’t take on things that fundamentally it’s been shown, can be ably led, and should be ably led by the provinces.” (Video)

Journalists pressed Trudeau on the “double standard” of promising to take action on pharmacare (a provincial responsibility) while refusing to push the provinces on child care. Trudeau refused to directly answer the question.

Trudeau’s decision to pass the buck to the provinces is a sharp departure from his 2015 commitment to “to deliver affordable, high-quality, flexible, and fully inclusive child care for Canadian families.”

As Child Care Now pointed out, Liberals have objectively not even tried to respect their promise. (1)

But as Trudeau refuses to help families with child care costs, even Liberal MP Wayne Long recently described child care costs as a “crisis situation” and a recent study by the Canadian Centre for Policy alternatives found that child care fees have risen faster than inflation in 61% of Canadian cities. (2)

An NDP government would invest $1 billion in 2020 and grow that investment annually to reduce child care costs for families.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh:

“At a time when families are struggling with rising child care costs, they need a Prime Minister who isn’t afraid to take on Doug Ford and other conservatives. Unfortunately, Justin Trudeau is showing that despite his nice words, he’s refusing to actually stand up for Canadians struggling with the cost of living. It’s time for a government that is willing to show real leadership to make life better for people. Families should not have to choose between having kids and having a career.”