Edmonton, “Albertans plainly support the federal-provincial agreement on childcare and early childhood education and oppose the Harper government plan to rip it up” says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. "What’s more, if the Harper government does renege on the deal, they want the Alberta government to continue to fully fund it.”
In a poll released today on Albertans’ opinions on childcare, only 37% of Albertans said they support the new federal government’s plan to cancel support for the expansion of childcare centres and day homes, and instead give parents $100 a month for each child under the age of 6 years. (50% oppose the plan and 13% do not know).
Furthermore, if the federal government cuts the funding to Alberta, 61% said they want to see the Alberta government continue to fund the programs enabled by the agreement, whileonly 27% said theyare opposed.
Moreover, 87% of Albertans agreed that ‘The provincial government should maintain childcare subsidies for low and middle-income parents so they can afford quality care for their children in either childcare centres or day homes’.
Similarly, 85% of Albertans agree that ‘The provincial government should continue to support wages and training for childcare workers so that trained workers can keep providing high quality, affordable care to Alberta children’.
“It is clear from these poll results that the more people know about what it will mean to cancel the childcare agreement, the more they are opposed to Harper’s plans to cut the funding” says Gil McGowen, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour.
Albertans from all parts of the province from different age and income groups and from across the political spectrum clearly support the main points of the Alberta five point plan for childcare, and do not want to see these improvements to our childcare system cut. For example, 86% of people who say they support the PC party of Alberta support the improved subsides for low and middle income families and 84% support the improved support for childcare workers’ training and wages.
“We hope the Minister for Children’s Services, Heather Forsyth, will join the other provincial governments to call on the federal government not to cancel the childcare agreements, says Bill Moore-Kilgannon. “If the federal government cuts the funding to the childcare agreements then clearly Albertans will be looking to the provincial government to maintain the improvements that they announced last October, 2005”.
“This poll shows that Albertans want to move forward on improving our childcare system – and they certainly do not want to move in a backward direction, which is what the Harper plan proposes”.
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Media contact: Bill Moore-Kilgannon (780) 420-0471
This poll was conducted by Viewpoints Research April 1 – 4th, 2006 for Public Interest Alberta and the Alberta Federation of Labour. There were 806 respondents with a margin of error of 3.4%, 19 times out of 20.
View the poll results - data tables
