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At a taxpayer cost of about $35,000 per space, the government could hire every child an in-home nanny.

Although Indira Harris-Naidoo, Ontario’s associate minister for early years and child care, stated that the government is on a “path” to universality, the current proposal is not universal. While Harris-Naidoo would not clarify during her press conference what the income thresholds were to be, or what “affordable” actually means, it’s a good thing that the province isn’t following the failed Quebec model. Hopefully, this doesn’t change.

But what the policy does have in common with the Quebec and Alberta models is that it’s unaffordable.

Ontario has run nine consecutive deficits, and is currently adding $9 billion in debt this year. The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario predicts that the government will add $76 billion in debt over the next five years.

Yet, somehow the premier is intent on giving the impression that the treasury is flush with cash with plans to spend $1.6 billion to create 45,000 new day care spots over five years. At about $35,000 per space, the government could hire an in-home nanny for every child for at least a year (but then, that would be considered one of those nasty unlicensed care providers, like neighbours and grandparents, which the government must protect us from).

Government-run day care is simply uneconomical. And Ontario is likely to see some of the same cost drivers that occurred in Quebec. Part of that province’s cost increase was driven by increased levels of unionization among child-care workers — both those at public centres and those offering home-based day care. With Ontario’s new labour-law proposals, which would increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour and allow for easier private sector unionization, the cost increases could be even more dramatic. About 24 per cent of current workers at registered day-care centres are paid less than $15 per hour. Bumping them up, and then bumping up their peers with more seniority, will only add to the costs of an already expensive system.

The Ontario government has already made the cost of virtually everything much more expensive, from real estate to electricity. That includes the cost of being a parent. The solution isn’t for the government to hand out goodies aimed at winning over target voters in the lead up to an election. The solution is to make life more affordable for everyone.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the approach the government is following. The more the premier has in her bag of tricks, the less money we have in our wallets.

Christine Van Geyn is Ontario Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation