Canada ties for last among developed countries for child services: UNICEF
Well, that's depressing. Somehow I doubt if it's going to get any better with the Conservatives in charge.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Canada ties for last among developed countries for child services: UNICEF
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2 comments:
Some of us actually like the Conservatives.
Actually, unless you are willing to pay considerable more in taxes it isn't going to happen.
I'm still trying to figure out what people think they are missing. I have plenty of services, with the IPRC's the school is purchasing an incredible amount of supplies for the school - they just requested a trampoline and a stand alone computer with speech programs on it - extra $$$, respite monies if I need them, we get a years holiday when we have children.... So, what's the issues??
Those countries that are at the top, you don't raise your own children. The Scandinavian countries the State raises them, they pay HUGE taxes, and everyone works and all children are raised by the State. Ditto in the USA. They don't have miles and miles to drive somewhere. Everything is nearby. We don't have such luxuries in this country. We don't have the population and therefore the tax base to pay for it. Plus, I don't want someone else raising my kids.
Living on a farm I don't want funded public daycare. I had to ship my kids 30min one way to take advantage of ACSD's 2 days/wk funded daycare (respite) and btwn the daycare and the mileage it maxed me out.
There's a reason rural Ont won't vote for the LEFT Toronto Only parties. That's b/c we get stuck paying for services we can't get.
S.
I think that we've just had different experiences. We've always had pretty good coverage (Ontario) for most things with my children since they were diagnosed on the spectrum 11 years ago, and were able to take "advantage" of Ontario's IBI program when my kids were young (I just replied to you on AutismVox so you can see my more extensive answer there about specific issue).
The original reason why I started to dislike the Conservatives was mainly because I became an adult in the 80s, when Mike Harris was premier of Ontario and Mulroney was Prime Minister. Mike Harris thoughtfully changed the rules so that I couldn't get my son a residential placement without giving him up to the custody of Children's Aid (fortunately we managed to get the law changed just in time in 2005 so that parents with special needs kids don't have to give up custody of them to get a placement) so that that is no longer the case). Mulroney was just a joke as far as people with special needs went. I can't help it...I'm a child of my times.
The $100/month credit that Harper gives parents for daycare is absolutely laughable...it's a slap in the face more than anything. It's great if you have the luxury to be a SAH parent out of choice, but if you're doing it out of necessity (I was a single parent for 7 years), it is almost funny if you have a quirky sense of humour. $100/month pays for one day a week of child care if you're lucky, but it certainly doesn't help anyone to pay for child care if they don't have another choice.
The "new" disability tax credit that they brought in last year is insulting to disabled people who ARE capable of looking after their own affairs- it is not applicable to the disabled person themselves, but only to their caregivers. I'm doing my best to make sure that my kids are able to make financial decisions for themselves when they are of age, and it's just another reminder that the Conservatives don't actually consider "disabled" people as actual people. Why haven't they ever had one disabled person on any of their committees or drafting coalitions? God knows we at least have enough articulate autistic people in Canada who are able to speak for themselves.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that Scandinavians pay higher taxes than we do or don't raise their own children- I do support work for multiple birth children with special needs children all over the world, and the parents that I've talked to have been able to get a great deal of support without having to pay much more than we do in terms of taxes.
My husband is American, and his total bill for taxes and private health insurance is considerably larger (for one person) than mine has ever been, even before I had special needs children. And I'm not quite sure why you think that rural families in the U.S. have access to programs that we don't- if anything, in my experience, it's considerably more difficult (not to mention expensive), to access than our programs here.
I'm assuming that you do realize that most of the programs that you are using (ASCD, even with its limitations), were put into place by Liberal governments?
Living in a rural area with special needs kids SUCKS- no argument there. I was stuck in Stratford, Ontario for 7 years, and although the people there were fantastic, there is no doubt that programs were lacking, which is why we eventually moved to a more urban area. My kids are heading towards adulthood in a hurry, so it seemed to me to make sense to move to an area where we would be in place to take advantage of adult programs. Now I'm just hoping that the federal funding for the programs that we moved for isn't going to disappear, but I'm pretty skeptical about that at the moment.
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