#ThroneSpeech2020: National Daycare & Eliminating Chronic Homelessness

In today's throne speech there were lots of announcements that in my view will lead to a better Canada. Two in particular stand out as highlights in a particularly strong performance of setting priorities for the national agenda. These are national daycare and a pledge to eliminate chronic homelessness.

National daycare has long been advocated for by public policy experts. In fact, in 2006 Paul Martin's Liberals, with one of my heroes Ken Dryden serving as point person on this file had arrived at a deal with all of the provinces and territories on implementing national daycare. It was based on Québec's $10 a day program that covered every person in that province who needed an earlier learning opportunity for their children aged zero through six.

Instead of supporting the government in the budget debates, the NDP under Jack Layton did not support the minority government and an election was held. In that election, the federal Liberals ran on national daycare and the Kelowana Accord, a plan to raise our indigenous peoples out of poverty and the conservatives ran on giving families a $100 check per child and a 2% GST cut. Well, the conservatives won that contest and until today neither governing parties had mentioned national daycare.

Public policy experts advocate for national daycare because it is a win-win for families as well as your society. It allows for men and women with young children to be able to work and studies have shown that kids learn better from kids so children who are enrolled in daycare on average do better than those who are not. The province of Québec has had national daycare for over 15 years. Their economy has grown because families are able to go to work and their educational scores have improved because kids are going to early learning opportunities where they are interacting with other kids every day.

In my view, national daycare will empower women, increase the capacity of the next generation and ensure that Canada is doing the best we can for kids in this country.

The government of Canada also pledged to eliminate chronic homelessness. Not only is this the right thing to do for moral reasons, it saves us money. Getting a homeless individual a place to live is less expensive than letting them struggle on the streets. On average, $34,000 per homeless individual is saved as a result of not having to fund shelters, police, fire and EMS whose costs explode when you have a large population of individuals who are homeless. I won't even get into the waste of human potential but I've said a million times, how can you build a life if you don't have a place to live.

There were many other announcements in the throne speech like a commitment to keep the Canada wage subsidy, create a million jobs, make EI more streamlined and flexible, increase financial supports for individuals with disabilities amongst others. Over the course of the next couple of days, I will highlight some other policy options identified in the throne speech.

I hope everyone has an amazing day!

Kent