Posts
Despite a raft of studies showing that daycare is bad for children and parents, the Liberals and NDP persist in advocating huge public subsidies for child-care by strangers outside the home. Imagine my surprise to see that the opposition parties have finally encountered daycare they don’t like.
The opposition is horrified that an Australia-based multinational called ABC Learning Centres has offered to buy several small private daycare operations in Alberta, BC, and Ontario. The company has over 2000 daycare operations around the world and reported profits this year of over $143 million.
The three opposition parties are joining child-care advocates in calling on the federal government to block "big-box" foreign companies from getting into child-care delivery in Canada.
. . .
"There is an urgent need to protect Canadian child care from foreign corporate takeover," [Shellie] Bird, of the coalition Code Blue for Child Care, told reporters at a Parliament Hill news conference.She said the federal government "must act quickly and decisively by passing Bill C-303," a bill introduced last year by the NDP.
The Conservative government is strongly opposed to the bill which the NDP maintains would prevent public subsidies from going to daycares owned by multinational corporations.
"Basing the care and education of our children on the corporate model where the greatest return for shareholders, increasing profit margins and global expansion is the rule of the corporation will hurt children and families," said Bird. "We have a clear message today. Canada's children are not for sale."
Pure demagoguery. First of all, profitable growth does not conflict with providing quality service at an affordable price. (In fact, they generally occur together.) The corporate model has ably provided Canadians with such necessities of life as food, clothing, transportation, and shelter.
Even worse is the nonsense about children for sale. Canadian children are already receiving daycare in privately owned operations, so we are not arguing about whether strangers can be paid to take care of children. If Ms Bird really believed that our children are not for sale, then she would oppose Bill C-303 and any other bill that provides taxpayer-funded subsidies for child-care.
An investigation by the Toronto Star earlier this year uncovered “thousands” of incidents in which
[c]hildren in provincially licensed daycares have been hit, kicked, allowed to play in filthy conditions and fed allergy-triggering food that nearly claimed their lives.
In view of that abysmal track record, why not allow more competition, and therewith more choice, in daycare provision?
Clearly, the fight against ABC Learning Centres is driven by anti-capitalist ideology, not concern for children.
h/t: Bourque
Previous related posts:
- Daycare turning British kids into yobs
- Even high-quality daycare is associated with poor behaviour
- Premiers not interested in national daycare program
- Daycare damages children’s development
- Mothers: Stash those kids in daycare and get back to work
- Universal daycare program hurts children and families
Artwork: Albrecht Dürer, The Adoration of the Trinity, 1511, Oil on lindenwood, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.