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NDP Leader stresses need for national childcare strategy during stop in Nanaimo

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.

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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.

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