QUESTION PERIOD — Status of Women
National Child Care Program
December 16, 2020
My question is for Senator Gold, the Government Representative in the Senate. As you know, this month marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women.
In committing to implement a national childcare program as part of the COVID-19 response and recovery, the government has reiterated how the Royal Commission underscored the necessity of childcare services for women’s social and economic equality. The Royal Commission also proposed a form of guaranteed basic liveable income as another key part of upholding women’s equality and recognizing their contributions to Canada’s society and economy through both paid and unpaid labour.
Given the commitment in the Speech from the Throne, as the government meets with provincial and territorial counterparts to coordinate the implementation of a national childcare program, what commitments envisioned by the Royal Commission will be made to ensure that these services work in tandem with vital and adequate national income supports for those who are most marginalized?
Honourable senator, thank you for your question and for your ongoing advocacy on these important issues.
The relationships and conversations between this government and its provincial counterparts touching upon issues like child care and income support for Canadians, their families and children are ongoing. The government remains committed to working with its provincial partners, whose jurisdiction is exclusive in so many areas upon which your comments touched. It will require some engagement and consensus between federal, provincial and territorial governments before any concrete national plan could be envisaged. But that work is the bread and butter of federal-provincial relations, the importance of which has been highlighted during this crisis but predated it and will continue even beyond it.
