NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was in Nanaimo on Monday talking about the importance of creating a national childcare strategy.
He met with staff at Little Ferns Early Learning Centre at John Basby School, flanked by Nanaimo-Cowichan MP Jean Crowder and Sheila Malcolmson, who is running in the new Nanaimo-Ladysmith riding in the next election.
Mulcair says, if elected in 2015, they’re committed to creating 400,000 childcare spaces across the country in the first four years, a 1 million in eight years.
Mulcair says in Quebec, for every dollar put into the childcare system, $1.20 flows back into provincial coffers.
He says the federal government would fund 60%, and they want provinces to get on board to pay the other 40%. Mulcair says it should be seen as an investment, rather than an expense.
Mulcair says they wouldn’t take a top-down approach to impending the strategy. He says the NDP is interested in working with the 10 provinces and 3 territories to figure out what works best, to provide affordable childcare.
Mulcair says the NDP also wants to boost the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and encourage provinces to follow suit.