Erin O'Toole promises increased childcare support as part of COVID-19 economic recovery plan

Both frontrunners in the Conservative leadership race, O'Toole and Peter MacKay, have now released their plans for leading Canada out of the COVID-19 crisis

OTTAWA — To help Canada recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Conservative leadership candidate Erin O’Toole is promising to boost childcare benefits as part of a package of economic measures announced Thursday.

O’Toole also says he would convene a Royal Commission on Canada’s pandemic response within 100 days of becoming Prime Minister to “ensure that all lessons learned from the crisis are publicly aired and learnings can immediately be adopted,” including specifically for long-term care homes.

Both frontrunners in the race to be the next Conservative leader, O’Toole and Peter MacKay, have now released their plans for leading Canada out of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

MacKay’s, announced Wednesday, included the idea of temporarily reducing or eliminating the GST for hard-hit sectors such as restaurants and the tourism industry.

There is some overlap between the two plans, including measures to reduce barriers to internal trade, expand high-speed internet access in rural areas, reject Huawei’s participation in the 5G network, and repeal Bills C-69 and C-48 (Liberal legislation on environmental reviews and tanker bans). O’Toole and MacKay are both promising to eventually balance the budget, but do not have a time frame to do so. Neither plan includes cost estimates for most of the proposed measures.

But one big difference between the plans is O’Toole’s promise of increased childcare benefits.

“Far more women than men have lost their jobs, a reflection of how hard the hospitality, service and retail sectors have been hit,” O’Toole’s plan says, noting this differs from the 2008-09 global financial crisis. “Many families are struggling. With schools and daycares closed, many workers with kids — particularly women — wonder how they will be able to get back to work.”

O’Toole promises to convert the existing Child Care Expense deduction to a refundable tax credit for the duration of the recovery period (though doesn’t say how long that recovery period may last). The refundable tax credit would cover up to 75 per cent of childcare expenses and be rolled back as the economy recovers.

He would also double the existing limits under the Child Care Expense deduction, meaning families would get a refundable tax credit for up to $16,000 in childcare expenses for children aged 0-6 and $10,000 for children aged 7-17.

Finally, O’Toole says he would “repeat the one-time boost in the Canada Child Benefit into quarterly boosts until the end of 2021, providing $12 billion in transition assistance to Canadian families.”

O’Toole says he would wind down the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (which provides a $2,000 monthly payment to those who have lost work due to COVID-19) in a “predictable and fair fashion,” and would have a plan to balance the budget that would be “marked by milestone measures and a closely monitored connection with the step-down of emergency COVID-19 benefits and other emergency measures.”

He also has a package of measures for small business, including expanding the size of the Emergency Business Account (which currently provides interest-free loans of up to $40,000), and providing a reduced employment insurance premium to small businesses who are hiring as their earnings increase.

For First Nations people, O’Toole says he would ensure they are “a true part of the recovery by ensuring that First Nations have opportunities to participate in large resource projects — from the needed expansion of Canada’s electricity power grids to mining to oil and gas — as true partners through benefits sharing.”

Other policies announced by O’Toole include building out Canada’s capacity to manufacture emergency supplies for future crises, developing a food security strategy that could include having more crops grown year-round in greenhouses, and a speedier process for approving the construction of pipelines deemed to be in the national interest.

O’Toole, MacKay, and the other two candidates Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan may soon have a chance to debate these policies for the first time during the race, as the party is expected to shortly announce a debate schedule. The debates had been previously planned for April but were cancelled due to the pandemic.

The race is expected to be close. A Mainstreet Research poll of 7,958 party members conducted between May 20 and 21 found 44.8 per cent of decided respondents supporting MacKay, while O’Toole had 36.2 per cent. However, O’Toole had a five-point edge as a second choice for Lewis and Sloan supporters, and a further 13.9 per cent of respondents were undecided. The poll was reported by iPolitics.

Voting in the leadership race will take place this summer by mail-in ballot, and is scheduled to conclude Aug. 21.

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