A Milton councillor’s motion for increased local access to $10-a-day daycare sparked heated debate about jurisdictional boundaries, with some colleagues voicing concerns that it might encroach on regional government responsibilities.
At the June 3 meeting, Coun. Adil Khalqi spoke about the town's growing number of young families during his motion, which was ultimately defeated.
“The motion speaks to advocacy at the grassroots level — at the local level — to the appropriate parties that have jurisdiction over this matter to advocate for access to more facilities to have affordable child care options for families that are relying upon that,” Khalqi said, while acknowledging ongoing efforts at the regional level to secure more funding.
Known as the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system, the federal/provincial program aims to eventually bring down child-care costs to $10 per day. Halton Region is tasked with disbursing the allocated funding to child-care operators across its four municipalities.
A number of councillors expressed concerns about potential negative repercussions.
“Let me assure this council that the Region is working very hard in resolving the shortfall in funding mentioned in the motion,” said regional Coun. Rick Malboeuf. “In fact, by getting involved we may be undermining the efforts of the Region in this area and I'm afraid our interfering could end up costing us in the end.”
This was echoed by Coun. John Challinor.
“You got to stay in your lane on subjects,” Challinor said.
“This is not our problem. It is a problem that exists at three other levels of government, one is the primary funder, one is the administrator and the third, where councillor Malboeuf and his colleagues around this table spend their time, actually has to deliver the program working with private and public operators,” he said.
Coun. Kristina Tesser Derksen argued that the town shouldn’t be penalized for bringing forth an advocacy motion.
“I'm surprised to hear the Region would punish us for bringing an advocacy motion. That seems really harsh and unproductive,” she said. “Recognizing the jurisdiction of the Region is paramount, however, I do think just quashing it all together is kind of a lost opportunity. “
“I feel like we have written advocacy letters before to different levels of government that might be outside of our jurisdiction,” she added.
While regional coun. Sammy Ijaz said he understood Khalqi’s viewpoint, “if there is a concern that deals with region matters, let's talk to those regional councillors and see if we can move those forward to the region.”
The majority of council voted against the motion.
