promises made, promises broken ...

PM’s pledge to kill gun registry has become ‘an embarrassment’
Jan 23

OTTAWA (CP) — A year after the federal Conservatives won power promising to abolish the gun registry, the program is still running — and any hope of killing it before the next election appears to be fading.

Even gun enthusiasts who have long railed against the long-gun registry have lost faith that Prime Minister Stephen Harper can muster the votes to do away with it in the current minority Parliament.

"The best thing to do would be to forget about it," said David Tomlinson, head of the National Firearms Association. "There are no brownie points to be made by going ahead, it’s merely an embarrassment . . . . At this point, the best advice is to wait until after the next election," he said Monday.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who was handed the task of finding a way to keep the Tory election pledge, brought in regulatory changes last May that included a one-year amnesty for any rifle and shotgun owners facing prosecution for failing to register their weapons.

The move bought the government some time among the hunters, farmers and target shooters who have long complained about the system.

But it requires legislation — not just regulatory amendments — to actually repeal the registry created by the Liberal government of Jean Chretien more than a decade ago. And although Day tabled a bill in June, there hasn’t been a single word of Commons debate on it since then.

and of course the:
Proposed child-care plan yet to appear
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — There’s no federal help in sight for frazzled parents facing years on waiting lists for child care.

One year after the Conservatives won power on a platform touting 125,000 new spaces over five years, there isn’t even a clear plan on how to create them. ...


Proposed child-care plan yet to appear
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — There’s no federal help in sight for frazzled parents facing years on waiting lists for child care.

One year after the Conservatives won power on a platform touting 125,000 new spaces over five years, there isn’t even a clear plan on how to create them.

And there’s uncertainty mixed with alarm across Canada over looming fee increases and program cuts since the Tories dropped the $5-billion Liberal plan to build a national early learning system.

"They’re really over a barrel," said Monica Lysack, executive director of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada.

"They don’t have a plan. They haven’t created a space. Parents are being caught in the middle of this cut-and-run approach."

The Conservatives argue in their own defence that they’ve taken action on one important front. They’re handing out cheques directly to families worth $1,200 a year (minus taxes) for each child under six.

Lesley Harmer, a spokeswoman for Social Development Minister Monte Solberg, noted that parents, regardless of income, have received a total of $1.2 billion since the first payments were mailed in July.

"Great," said Lysack. "But it’s not child care. Even they acknowledge that."

She said the Tories are running from the fact that there are registered spaces across the country for fewer than 20 per cent of kids under 12 — a problem that can’t be solved by delivering money to families who then can’t find day care to spend it on.

In British Columbia and Ontario, it’s not unusual for waiting lists to stretch to more than two years for a pre-school spot.

Harmer pointed out that the Conservatives committed $250 million in last year’s budget to create new spaces in 2007-08.

But the program relies on a tax-incentive plan to lure employers and non-profit groups into the costly and bureaucratic child-care business, an approach that has been widely panned. Similar efforts in Ontario under the former Mike Harris Tories failed badly when corporations didn’t bite.

Former social development minister Diane Finley held talks with child-care groups last summer and was to draft space-creation recommendations by the fall. The report has still not been released and Solberg, who replaced Finley after a cabinet shuffle this month, was not available for comment Monday.