Majority of Albertans are opposed to Harper child care plans

'Our poll shows that only 35 % of Albertans agree.' - PIA and AFL

Edmonton (17 April 2006) - A poll conducted by Public Interest Alberta (PIA) and the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) shows that most Albertans do not support Stephen Harper's plans to replace the fledgling national childcare program with $100 per month payments to parents of pre-school age children.

"Our poll shows that only 35 % of Albertans agree with the Harper child care program," says AFL President Gil McGowan.

"The Prime Minister should take note of this - because if barely a third of the voters in the heartland of Tory Alberta support the program, imagine the response in the rest of Canada."

"One of the most important findings of the poll was that the more people know about the Harper government's child care scheme, the less likely they are to support it," says McGowan. "We suggest that this means that support for the Tory plan will continue to dwindle as time goes on.”

McGowan suggests that there are many good reasons for Albertans to oppose the dismantling of the national child care program.

"First, child care is more and more a labour issue," he says. "The number of children in Alberta who have both parents in the workforce continues to grow – making childcare a more and more important workplace issue. In 2003, 53% of all children in Alberta under the age of five (117,000 out of 219,000) had both parents in the workforce."

"When you look strictly at the 3 to 5 year old range, however, the percentage who have both parents working climbs to 71%," says McGowan. "For Alberta parents, child care isn't a luxury - it's a necessity."

Need not being met

However, the desperate need for high-quality, accessible and affordable child care isn't being met in Alberta.

"There aren't nearly enough spaces available in quality public child care centres," notes McGowan, "and while wages for child care workers remain shockingly low, most the cost of quality child care is more than many parents can bear."

With the former government’s national child care program, the Alberta government received $45 million this year and was in line for $70 million each year for the following four years. The province used the new federal money to fund a five point plan that is helping to create new child care spaces in Alberta; that provides subsidies for parents and that subsidizes the wages and training of child care workers.
"If the Harper government goes ahead with its plans", warns McGowan, "the money for a national program - and the money that Alberta has been using to finance its own five point child care plan - will disappear.”

"If that happens, our poll indicates that 61% of Albertans want the provincial government to step in and find the money to continue funding the five point plan that, up until now, has been funded with federal money", concludes McGowan.

"Albertans recognize that the need for these programs is great. And they recognize that the interests of our children are too important to be ignored. Let's just hope that our leaders get the message."

The poll was conducted by Viewpoints Research April 1 - 4th, 2006. There were 806 respondents with a margin of error of 3.4%, 19 times out of 20." NUPGE

More information:
Gil McGowan, AFL President, (780) 915-4599