Common Ground, Edition #1: The Liberal Party
One of the things that attracted me to run with the Greens is the freedom to cooperate across party lines. Canadian federal politics has become polarized and divisive, and the only remedy I can see is to recognize that every MP is there because they care about Canada, and that everyone has some common ground for collaboration.
So, in my next three blog posts, I am going to do something different: rather than focusing on what I disagree with in each federal party, I want to showcase three things in the platforms of each of the three other national parties that I do agree with, and would work with them to accomplish.
First up: the governing Liberals. I am well aware that after nine years in office, there’s a lot of disillusionment about the party, and about Justin Trudeau in particular. But even so, there are Liberal Party accomplishments worth celebrating:
1. The Canada Greener Homes Grant and Loan
When talking to neighbours at their doors, this is the one government measure I point to the most as a success story. It’s surprising how many people have never heard about this program! If you are one of those people, the Canada Greener Homes Loan is still accepting applications, and you can find out more here.
My wife and I personally used these programs, receiving a $5,000 grant and $40,000 interest-free loan to replace our furnace and water heater with heat pump systems, and to install solar panels on our house. As a direct result, our home no longer uses natural gas, and generates most of its own electricity!
Suffice it to say, we could not have made these upgrades so quickly without federal government support. And we were not alone: uptake on the Canada Greener Homes Grant was so strong that the government ran out of its allocated funding for the program several years early.
Here’s where I am disappointed: rather than using the incredible enthusiasm for the grant money as a reason to set more aside, the Liberal government chose to end the grants early.
The Greener Homes Grant money has led to the installation of nearly 150,000 heat pumps throughout the country and nearly 25,000 solar panel retrofits, with the program creating greenhouse gas reductions equivalent to taking over 94,000 cars off the road.
As your next MP, I would commit to reviving and expanding the Canada Greener Homes Grant program, as one of the fastest ways to reduce Canada’s residential greenhouse gas emissions, while saving households money at the same time.
2. Investments in Public Transit
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I would like to see Canada move away from its current “car culture”. I think it is a mistake to carelessly replace gas-powered vehicles with EVs, without changing the ways Canadians get around. I would much rather see vast investments in public transit, VIA Rail, and active transportation infrastructure than massive grants for construction of EV batteries, for instance.
That is why I am pleased to see the Liberal government’s recent announcement of a $3 billion-per-year Canada Public Transit Fund. Not only is this fund intended to provide stable federal funding for the operating of existing public transit infrastructure across the country, it also includes funds for the expansion of locally-designed solutions for rural transit, active transportation projects, and a clarified, centralized procedure that Canada metro-regions can use to obtain funding for large-scale expansions of transit service that cross regional boundaries.
Unfortunately, the funding is not slated to start until 2026, which means it will only happen if the next government decides to support this program. As your next MP, I would work with any MP or party who wants to advance this program.
3. $10-a-day childcare*
As a new parent, this is one of the Liberal government’s initiatives that I benefit from the most. At the same time, you might notice I put an asterisk on this one! Though the goal of the program is noble and welcome, there seem to be some issues with its on-the-ground implementation.
Early childhood care expenses have put immense financial strain on many Canadian families. The exact costs vary by province, but our little one’s monthly fee for childcare is currently just under $750 per month, which we are assured has been reduced by around 50% due to federal subsidies. This means that only a few years ago, it would have been costing us $1,500 a month to send our one-year old to full-time daycare. To put that in perspective, that’s well over double our family grocery budget for the month!! No wonder families with young children have been feeling so much financial stress…
There is still some way to go before Ontario (and other provinces, like Alberta and BC) reach the goal of $10 per day childcare by 2026. And, here’s the fine print: parents are not just having difficulties with the costs of childcare, it’s also the availability of childcare that’s a huge problem.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) calls this issue ‘child-care deserts’, defining such a ‘desert’ as a region where there are more than three young children for every available childcare space. Not surprisingly to parents living in Waterloo Region, we rank second-to-last in the country in terms of available spaces for children not yet in Kindergarten among Canadian cities (only Saskatoon has lower numbers). According to the report “Not done yet” put out by the CCPA, only 22% of children in Kitchener-Waterloo not yet in Kindergarten have access to a licensed child-care spot.
So, the Liberal government has done a great job in cutting costs of licensed day care spaces, but they have done a rather poor job in working with the provinces to create more such licensed spaces. The “Not done yet” report warns that this dropping of fees will
continue to raise demand for affordable, high-quality, licensed child care. Without more and better distributed expansion, this demand will simply cause wait lists to balloon, stoking frustration and cynicism in the many communities with inadequate, little, or no licensed child care.
It doesn’t come as a surprise, then, that in both Ontario and Alberta, frustration with lack of funding for licensed spaces has become a wedge issue. Recent news is full of stories of for-profit daycare operators in Ontario staging closures to protest the province’s funding formula and to raise concerns about proper wages for early childhood educators. Advocates in Alberta are in fact calling for the provincial government to pull the whole province out of the funding agreement due to the way it was negotiated.
As your MP, I would work with and urge the government to foster a more open dialogue with provinces about the path to implementing sustainable $10-a-day childcare, while also ensuring that childcare work is well-compensated and appealing to prospective early childhood educators (as it should be!).
Do you have a Liberal Party policy that you agree with and think I should fight for? I would love to hear about it! Please reach out by email at nickrollick@gpo.ca.
