Liberals take heat from advocates for selling child benefit as daycare cash
OTTAWA — Federal officials went looking for Canadian daycares to help promote a Liberal government plan to increase the Canada child benefit — but instead found opposition to the idea of touting the benefit as key to defraying the cost of child care.
The government had some difficulty finding suitable backdrops for this week’s promotional events, sources say — evidence of the tensions that have emerged over the latest Liberal messaging on the changes to one of the government’s flagship spending initiatives.
Until recently, the Liberals were being careful about linking child care to the benefit, but that caution appears to have vanished as the government aims to use Tuesday’s economic update to douse a controversy that’s threatened to engulf Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
Child care groups say the extra cash will indeed help families pay the bills, but they point to research that shows such cash payments to parents don’t make child care cheaper or more available to families that need a space.