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A B.C. Liberal MLA has expressed extreme skepticism about whether there are "great economic benefits associated with child care".

In a speech in the legislature on February 26, Laurie Throness said that if the government truly wants to grow the economy, it would "replace human workers with software and machines that automate boring, repetitive tasks".

That way, the Chilliwack-Kent MLA suggested, mothers wouldn't have to leave their children with others to care for them.

"History shows that human knowledge applied to technology and machines, more than human labour, has provided the incredible standard of living, unmatched in all of human history, that we enjoy today," Throness said.

Citing the Fraser Institute, a free-market think tank, he argued that the cost of Quebec's $7 per day childcare plan outweighs the economic benefits.

In the same speech, he noted that a parent who re-enters the workforce makes a salary, but then cited various costs associated with this.

"We must deduct from that the training costs and salary of the early childhood educator; the cost to the economy of that child care worker unable to do other things that might earn more," Throness stated. "Deduct also the cost of government subsidies, of regulation, of running a daycare; and the many miscellaneous costs to parents, like picking up and dropping off children."

Throness went on to say: "The government also wants more women in the workplace for the purpose of gender equity. Of course, we all want fairness in the workplace. But for some reason, the government doesn't see a parent taking care of his or her own child at home as productive labour, even though a different person caring for that same child in a daycare is applauded for doing productive work. This is an obvious contradiction."

All of this verbal gymnastics prompted the following tweet from Vancouver-West End NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert: