Trudeau says child-care budget plan ‘huge’ as critics call it overselling
MONTREAL — Federal and provincial elected officials sought to reassure the public Wednesday after a report suggested some workers at Montreal’s airport may have been radicalized.
Quebec’s public security minister said Montreal police, the Quebec provincial force and the RCMP were working together to monitor the situation.
“The first thing I did was to assure myself that police services were following the situation closely, and that was confirmed to me,” Martin Coiteux said in Quebec City.
“Following closely means taking all means to assure the public’s safety.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised his government would “cut no corners” when it comes to addressing threats and ensuring the safety of Canadian travellers.
“When issues come to light we deal with them in a responsible way, we look into what happened and how we can ensure that Canadians remain safe in air travel,” he told reporters in Winnipeg.
A French-language TV network reported Tuesday that two employees with access to restricted areas at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport were found to have shown signs of radicalization. TVA said a police investigation found the workers had watched pro-ISIS propaganda and that one possessed books on military-calibre assault weapons.
The network reported one of the employees has since left the airport, while the other has been reassigned away from secured areas.
Transport Minister Marc Garneau said that in order to enter the restricted areas of an airport, employees must undergo an extensive vetting process including background checks and ongoing daily verifications.
“Transport Canada works closely with partners such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, Canada Border Services Agency, airport authorities and local law-enforcement agencies to maintain the highest security standards at Canadian airports,” he said in a statement.
Montreal’s airport authority said Tuesday the airport is secure and that it had not been informed of any specific threat.
Aeroports de Montreal listed a number of measures in place, including security personnel, surveillance systems, specialized response teams, an emergency measures co-ordination centre and “very effective” emergency plans.
“Montreal—Trudeau airport is unquestionably among the most secure locations there is,” the statement read.
The airport authority also responded to a segment on the TV report that appeared to show an employee with an access card boarding an empty plane without being searched.
Employees who work in restricted areas must carry a pass and undergo “a total security investigation,” as well as regular monitoring and random searches, Aeroports de Montreal said.
“As for various risks, including radicalization, ADM works with the different law-enforcement agencies responsible for risk investigation, prevention and analysis,” it wrote. “At present, ADM has not been informed of any specific threat.”
The Conservatives’ public safety critic described the media report as “deeply troubling” and urged the government to take any necessary measures to ensure security levels are maintained.
“This is a reminder of the need to be ever vigilant against the threat of radical Islamic terrorism,” Tony Clement said in a statement.
OTTAWA — The federal Liberals are putting on a political press to sell their child-care budget pledge, calling it ambitious in the face of questions about whether the funding is too modest to make a significant difference for families.
The Liberals have promised to spend $7.5 billion over a decade on child care, starting with $500 million in the new fiscal year that starts this weekend and increasing to $870 million annually by 2026 to fund spaces in provinces and territories, as well as indigenous child care on and off-reserve.
For advocates who have waited years for the federal government to kick in cash to help expand and subsidize child-care services, the money is seen as a start, but far from enough to cover the whole country.
The annual funding is below what the Paul Martin Liberals offered provinces in 2005 and below what federal officials last year told the minister in charge of the file would be needed to make a measurable effect on the number of child-care spaces countrywide.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government’s pledge would
This is a reminder of the need to be ever vigilant against the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.”
have a “huge” impact on low- and modest-income families, calling it a “historic investment.”
“These are the kinds of things that we need to do to ensure that every family has the opportunity to make the choices that are right for them,” Trudeau said at a Winnipeg daycare.
The actual provincial and territorial allocations will be unveiled once funding agreements are signed, but first, the Liberals have to get provinces and territories to agree on the final text of a multilateral agreement that would lay out the key policy goals of the childcare money.
The money could potentially create 40,000 subsidized spaces for low and modest-income families over the next three years, about 13,000 spaces a year or about 2.4 per cent of the roughly 543,000 regulated child care spaces in Canada for children five and under.
The Liberals calculated the impact based on an annual federal subsidy of $7,000 per space.
NDP families critic Brigitte Sansoucy said the promised future spending on child care is totally inadequate to meet the needs of parents and below what her party had proposed in a plan the Liberals attacked for being too slow.
“The Liberals should be supporting child-care programs, such as the one in Quebec,” she said. “This budget fails to do that.”
Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu said in Quebec, home to the largest subsidized system in the country, and other parts of the country there are long wait lists for spaces, suggesting the need is enormous. The Liberal plan, she said, only amounts to about 40 new child care spaces per riding, per year.
“I’m happy to see them start, but I do think there’s a difference between the fanfare that they’re making and what actually appeared in terms of dollars in the budget,” she said.
Speaking at news conference in Toronto, which has the highest child-care costs in the country, Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said that if the Liberals are going to take gender equity seriously, then they must do the same when it comes to the soaring cost of child care.
Duclos said the Liberals plan to take $95 million from the money announced in the budget to close data gaps on child care and put $100 million in an innovation fund aimed at finding ways to get the most bang for the government’s buck.