Taxpayers should pay for all child care
The fuss over paying for the Trudeau family nannies is ridiculous because the public should have no say in the raising of Trudeau’s children. The ire generated by this issue is simply an indication of what’s wrong with the child care system in Canada.
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now has a house, a jet, cars, bodyguards and other features all paid for by taxpayers that no one bats an eye at, why is there such an adverse response to the idea of paying for his nannies?
People are upset primarily because Trudeau is appearing to go back on his campaign rhetoric about the Universal Child Care Benefit, the tax break from the government that Trudeau and his wife donated to charity since they felt they as a wealthy family they didn’t deserve it.
The real issue at play is how little value we place on early child care. It’s time that Canada seriously examines the possibility of a subsidized child care system.
The most expensive childcare in Canada is in Toronto, where there’s a median monthly infant care cost of $1,676, a median monthly toddler care cost of $1,324 and a median monthly preschool cost of $998, according to Global News. Quebec already has a subsidized system in place that helps keep the price between $7.50 and $20 per day.
As Canadians we should want to take all measures necessary to make sure that our leader is able to do his job, instead of trying to multi-task.
We should be looking to expand the benefits available to our Prime Minister to all working parents. A subsidized child care system would create jobs for child care workers, would allow new parents to return to work faster and ensure the safety of children who might be lacking supervision otherwise.
The problem with the Trudeau family nannies isn’t that taxpayers are paying for them, but that those are the only childcare workers in this country that are being paid for by the federal government.
Canada is proud of its health-care system—but we need to create a child care system that this country can be proud of as well.
New PM doesn’t need the reputation damage now
The latest scandal in the Canadian political world came with the revelation that Prime Minister (PM) Justin Trudeau’s family has two nannies—paid for by the public purse.
Trudeau already receives an annual salary of $330,000, along with additional benefits such as a car, a house, a chef, among others. If Trudeau can’t afford to pay for a nanny out of his own pocket, then how does he imagine that thousands of Canadians manage? For that matter, can’t Trudeau manage with just one nanny?
It is true that the PM’s workload is intense and important, and as such they need as much help as they can get. We shouldn’t, however, be providing government members a free pass for all personal matters.
This particular situation goes beyond just the question of how best to manage a PM’s affairs. Trudeau campaigned on a promise to reduce child benefits for richer families, pointing out that families like his don’t need the help. There’s a fine line between flexibility and hypocrisy, and as our new leader he needs to be very cautious when walking that line.
Politics is often less about reality than it is about image. No matter how comparatively little gets spent on Trudeau’s nannies, the optics look bad.
Ultimately, scandals like this detract from a government’s ability to function. This is especially true for ambitious governments—if Trudeau wants to bring real change to our country, he will need the public behind him. If not, he risks alienating large parts of Canada
This is about more than just child care. This is about a PM going back on their word and how that can impact their time in office.
