|
Meet Mustard and McCain, two of the
experts who are pushing for a national daycare plan
in Canada. On February 14, Dr. Fraser Mustard, founder
of the Council for Early Child Development and Margaret
Norrie McCain his co-author on the 2007 paper Early
Years Study 2 testified before the Standing Senate Committee
on Social Affairs, Science and Technology. [1] The Senate
is currently examining “the state of early learning
and childcare in Canada,” after the release of
a 2006 OECD report ranked Canada poorly on child care
spending. [2]
If these witnesses are any indication,
it just doesn’t auger well for the Senate’s
final assessment. Mustard and McCain believe there is
no stone the federal government should leave unturned
to support universal daycare. Their plan? “Go big
or do not go at all,” says McCain. Federal child
care, they estimate, should cost about 18.5 billion
dollars annually. Because Dr. Mustard’s research
is in neurobiology, his concern begins with children
in utero and in the very first months of life. How they
hope to get federal bureaucrats into the womb remains
a tactical mystery. But not to worry—they’ll
try.
It’s not that they are completely
off track. Yes, those early months, and mom’s care
even while the child is in the womb, are important.
But from this they derive a pressing need for a universal
daycare plan, for absolutely everyone. “It must
be universal as opposed to targeted towards those we
determine are at risk. If you do this, you will miss
the largest number of Canadian children who are vulnerable—those
in the middle class,” says McCain.
This is reminiscent of the “beer
and popcorn” fiasco when Liberal staffer Scott
Reid said Canadian parents would squander child care
cash given to parents. [3] Mustard and McCain are a
variation on that theme: Instead of worrying you’ll
waste money on things other than child care—they
are worried that you will use it for just that.
Mustard believes 18.5 billion is a small
price to pay for a good child care plan because he explains,
it will save billions more, 220 billion dollars annually
to be precise—in money currently spent on mental
health institutions and criminal justice. “These
are massive societal and economic costs,” says
Mustard, “and I am tired of the Government of Canada
not being able to cope with that.”
Parents, on the other hand, when surveyed,
are adamant they would like to stay home. There’s
a long list of surveys and polls that have been done
clearly indicating a parental preference for one of
them in the home, failing that, a family member. [4]
And there is no evidence that for the majority of kids
child care centres are better than parents or other
forms of care. [5]
Both Mustard and McCain say they value
parents. But a federally funded universal plan de facto
says parents do not matter as much as these “early
child development” programs do. A universal daycare
plan does not make it easier for parents to stay home,
should they want to.
Mustard is colourful: His AA-rated testimony
includes everything from his love of kittens and Cuba,
to outbursts decrying the second rate research of other
academics, which he calls “chicken poop.”
But beyond his flamboyant persona, what he is actually
advocating is profoundly anti-parent. Yet Senator Munson
replies to Dr. Mustard: “You used words like “chicken
pooh-pooh” and “crappy” and so on. That
is heavy stuff, and it seems to me that you have always
thought outside the box.”
Heavy stuff indeed. And smelly too,
chicken pooh-pooh is, especially when it’s not
in the box. That pooh-pooh would hit the fan if the
average Canadian parent had time to read Dr. Mustard’s
testimony: He has an almost religious conviction the
federal government should step up to the plate to parent
the nation and that they will do a bang up job. In the
end it sounds as though he is telling Canadian parents
that they aren’t up to snuff. (That’s you
and you, braving the Canadian winter not on taxpayer-funded
junkets to Cuba but rather by schlepping the kids to
swimming lessons in snow drifts eight feet high.)
Canadian families today are financially
strained. [6] We ought to diminish that strain, either
through family tax cuts or through money for parents
to help with child care. With rare exceptions, Canadian
parents raise their kids well—better than the professionals
and with a love the government can’t muster. Or
Mustard. Meet the experts. Meet ‘em and weep.
Endnotes
[1] McCain, M.N., Mustard, J.F. &
Shanker, S. Society for Research in Child Development
(March 2007). Early Years Study 2: Putting Science into
Action.
Toronto: Council for Early Child Development. Retrieved
from: http://www.councilecd.ca/cecd/home.nsf/7F1BCE63A330D01785
2572AA00625B79/$file/Early_Years_2_rev.pdf
[2] The Senate Committee proceedings
can be found online at
http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/2/parlbus/commbus/senate/Com-e/soci-e/45189-e.htm
?Language=E&Parl=39&Ses=2&comm_id=47
All subsequent citations from Mustard
and McCain are found in this testimony.
[3] CTV News Staff. (December 11, 2005).
Senior Grit staffer apologizes for 'beer' gaffe. Retreived
online at http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051208/elxn_
campaign_stops_051211/20051211?s_name=election2006
[4] GPC Research. Canadian attitudes
on the family; Institute of Marriage and Family Canada.
(April 1, 2006), Canadians Make Choices on Childcare.
Canadian Family Views 1, 3. Retrieved from http://www.imfcanada.org/article_files/CanadiansMakeChoicesAboutChildcare.pdf
Ipsos Reid, Focus Groups on Issues Surrounding
Child Care. (May 23, 2006) Final Report V9863-060001/001/CY,
submitted to Human Resources and Social Development,
May 23, 2006. “…It does not seem that people
outside the major urban centers are looking for a National
Day Care system…” Retrieved online at http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/cgi-bin/hrsdc-rhdsc/print/print.asp?Page_Url=/en/cs/comm/reports/por/childcare/20060523.shtml
Bibby, R. (February 10, 2005). Press
Release: Child Care Aspirations. University of Lethbridge.
Retrieved from
http://www.vifamily.ca/newsroom/press_feb_10_05_c.html
Compas, Inc. (2003, May). Ontario provincial
election report for Global TV, National Post, Ottawa
Citizen and Windsor Star. http://www.compas.ca/data/030521-GlobalOnProvElection-E.pdf
Michalski, J.H. (1999). Values and preferences
for the “best policy mix” for Canadian children.
Ottawa Canadian Policy Research Networks, Inc.
[5] There is evidence of benefits from
centre-based child care for disadvantaged children.
For the IMFC position in full see http://www.imfcanada.org/article_files/April_25_2007.pdf
[6] What’s at the heart of the
Canadian family? (September 2007). Institute of Marriage
and Family Canada. Retrieved online at http://www.imfcanada.org/article_files/IMFC%20Report%20(2).pdf
|
