With an eye towards a long-awaited new federal budget, Cardus’ latest Family Policy Brief has some ideas to support Canadian families.
In these recommendatons to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, authors Peter Jon Mitchell and Andrea Mrozek are mainly focused on putting cash into the bank accounts of parents, either through monthly benefits or tax credits.
For parents with children in daycare, Cardus recommends making the tax deduction refundable, removing some limits on the credit and paying out the refund in advance throughout the year. Cardus also recommends a boosted child benefit, especially for parents of very young children, and making maternity and parental leave easier to access.
The Childcare Expense Deduction
- Make the deduction refundable
- Remove the “two-thirds limit”
- Pay out the refund in advance over the year
The Canada Child Benefit
- Permanently enhance the CCB for children under six
- Leverage the CCB to better help new parents
Maternity and Parental Leave
- Improve ease of access
- Reduce impediments to earning a small amount of income
- Increase the length of leave
Multilateral Early-Learning and Childcare Framework
- Provide provincial flexibility
- Encourage a portion of multilateral funding to support parenting programs
There are few more immediately impactful areas of governance than policies that affect the family. Click below to view the details of their enhancement recommendations in full.
