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Baby-stealers in Pain

February 21, 2006 permalink

The following story deals with the howls of pain from Ontario's baby-stealers cut off from their funding. Ontario's children will be fortunate if Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty stand firm in their refusal to fund Ontario's child-care boondoggle.

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PM's deal with Quebec has Ontario fuming

Province vows to fight for child-care funding

Kate Jaimet, The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will face strong opposition from Ontario if he cancels the $1.8-billion child-care deal with the province -- especially if he keeps the agreement to send $1.1 billion to Quebec, Ontario Children and Youth Services Minister Mary Anne Chambers said yesterday.

Ms. Chambers said she's unhappy with reports indicating that child-care money may continue to flow to Quebec, even as it's cancelled for other provinces.

But she said she's in the dark about the Tory government's intentions, because federal Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has not returned her phone calls.

The Citizen was unable to reach Ms. Finley for comment yesterday.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Sunday the federal-provincial child-care agreements signed by the former Liberal government will be cancelled as of 2007.

However, in an earlier meeting between Mr. Harper and Premier Jean Charest, a commitment was apparently made to satisfy Quebec.

"They agreed that there will be solutions on the table, and we are confident," Louise Bedard, press attache for Quebec's Minister of the Family Carole Theberge, said yesterday.

But the mood at Queen's Park and in Ontario municipalities is anything but confident, Ms. Chambers said. "We're very concerned," she said. "We need funding from the government of Canada to make this (child-care program) a reality.

"Ontario is not in a position to pick up the slack financially," said Ms. Chambers. "Ottawa is the government with the surplus. Ontario is the government with the deficit."

Source:
canada.com

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