Quote of the Day: “Nothing is as permanent as a temporary government program.” Milton Friedman
Bonus Quote of the Day: “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” Milton Friedman
Waterloo Region has operated a number of day care centres “for decades”, Luisa D’Amato tells us in her column today. Now that the Region is facing some rather tough financial times, they have to make some spending decisions. Based on an audit earlier this year by KPMG, they are contemplating cutting the five daycare centres at the end of the year. Councillors will vote on this next week. Of course, the usual suspects are lighting their hair on fire and predicting the end of the world. D’Amato starts off her column by stating: “This could not be a worse time for Waterloo regional council to consider closing the five child-care centres it has operated for decades.” She doesn’t tell when it would be a good time (see quote number 1). She suggests that: “There are also broader concerns that closing these centres will insidiously lower the quality of child care in privately owned and non-profit centres across the region”, but doesn’t attempt to explain why or even how this will happen. Isn’t the price of goods a function of supply and demand (two words I don’t think D’Amato has ever heard). And isn’t “quality” a function of price? Never mind… D’Amato explains: “Part of the reason that the child-care centres are under threat is they are more expensive to operate. A report by KPMG, the accounting and audit firm, shows that the salaries of the unionized workers in the regionally-owned centres are higher than in other centres.” Well, actually the report shows that the Region pays it’s workers over twice(!) what daycare workers make on average in other centres – a point she neglected, but clearly needed to emphasize. She also didn’t mention how much money these childcare centres have lost over that last few decades (see quote number 2). But to her credit, she also mentions a number of questionable expenditures by the Region including my favourite – the half a Million dollar temp bike lanes. But this still doesn’t excuse the fact that this “service” is brutally expensive and just can’t be justified. She concludes by saying: “But now, the continuation of all these ‘discretionary’ services, not only child care, is in question in another report released late last year by KPMG. More discussions like this one are coming in the future. Fundamental changes may be on the way. But what a sad commentary on our priorities it is that child care, so badly needed as we try to rebuild from the wreckage caused by the pandemic, is the first.” Of course, no mention by D’Amato of the tax savings as one of “our priorities”, but then why would she?