Ford’s shadow over Scheer
Another day, another problem with Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government.
Whether it’s ridiculous stickers that don’t stick, high school students who can’t get the math classes they need for university because of education cuts, or autism program fixes that make things worse, Ontarians are used to this by now.
But when it happens in the middle of a federal election campaign, it’s not just another Ford failure. It’s a problem for Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.
That’s why they’re trying so hard to keep Ford under wraps. But try as they might, the premier’s shadow is hard to hide. Just this week, Ontario’s independent Financial Accountability Office released a report detailing how far short Ford’s tax credit comes to meeting the affordability promises he made to Ontarians.
That’s a particular problem for Scheer since he’s pitching the same “I’ll make your life more affordable” lines that Ford used in last year’s Ontario election. And Scheer is reading from the same failed playbook on how to improve access to child care and help families with the staggering costs.
In the Ontario election campaign, the provincial Liberals and New Democrats promised publicly funded, regulated child care spaces. Ford promised cash in hand to give parents “choice” and “flexibility.”
His tax credit would help families pay for up to 75 per cent of their child care needs in whatever form they wanted, from licensed daycare to the babysitter next door. Ford wouldn’t dictate the right choices for them; they’d get up to $6,000 a year to do whatever they wanted. Well, not so much as it turns out. “Up to” always covers a lot of ground. But in this case fewer than 300 families in the entire province will reap those big dollar benefits, according to the FAO report.
For everyone else who qualifies (most families don’t) the average is $1,300. It’s not paying 75 per cent of child care costs but a meagre 10 per cent. Two-thirds of the tax benefit goes to families with above-median incomes, not the low and modest income families Ford claimed it would help the most. It will have far too little impact on getting more women into the workforce.
And it will cost $460 million a year – or $70 million more than Ford claimed or budgeted for.
Little of this comes as a surprise, given all the experts who warned from the outset that Ford’s promises on child care (along with most other issues) didn’t remotely add up.
But a report like this landing now is sure not going to help Scheer sell his approach to child care to voters.
To date, he’s vowed to maintain federal transfers and let the provinces decide what to do with the money. And in a meeting with the Star’s editorial board earlier this month, it was clear there’s no daylight between Scheer’s view and Ford’s on what’s best.
When asked about his support for regulated daycare, the very thing many parents put their children on waiting lists for before they’re even born, Scheer said that’s “a one-size-fits-all approach” that is “not beneficial to families.”
“That’s why the principle of providing those child care dollars directly to parents helps the most people in the broadest way possible by allowing them to determine what works best for their families and recognizing parental choice.” He spoke of “choice” and “flexibility.” Those are the very same words the Ford government has used to push its tax break, which we know is not producing new child care spaces or making existing ones more affordable. This isn’t respecting parental choice; it’s abdicating responsibility to create the robust child-care system Canada’s families and economy need.
Across Canada, fewer than one child in three under 12 has access to regulated care and (outside Quebec) the costs are staggering. In Toronto, a toddler space can cost $20,000 a year.
The federal NDP and Greens have both committed to universally accessible child care, with billions of dollars on offer to pay for it. The Liberals have vowed to double federal funding to create up to 250,000 new spaces in the coming years and reduce fees for before- and after-school care.
That leaves Scheer as the odd man out on child care, just as Ford was during Ontario’s election.
There’s just over three weeks left of this federal election campaign. But for a few blips it has been focused on making life more affordable.
For those in vote-rich Ontario, who faced bucket-loads of similar affordability rhetoric in the provincial campaign just last year, this all feels a little too familiar.
It was Ford who made the most memorable of those promises, and it’s Ford who has already broken many of them.
That’s sure to make for some difficult conversations when Scheer and his Conservatives come knocking on the door trying to sell a similar bill of goods.