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How does this doom loop end well?Last updated 2 days ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.In its 2021 budget, the Trudeau government committed up to $30 billion over five years, plus at least $9.2 billion per year after that, to establish a national child-care program aimed at reducing fees to $10 per day. Photo by Postmedia“Circular lobbying” is a phrase I learned from a new report by Sabine Benoit and David Clement, Canadian policy researchers with the U.S.-based Consumer Choice Center. Circular lobbying takes place when the government gives money to organizations that then use the money to lobby the government. “In other words,” the report explains, “the government is paying to lobby itself.”Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorThe millions of dollars the federal government has given the Canadian Climate Institute, which uses the money to spread climate alarm and advocate greater government intervention to fight climate change, is one such example. A National Post article by Tristin Hopper last year provided examples of large subsidies from the federal government to left-wing gender and anti-Israel activists. Depending on how widely “circular lobbying” is defined, taxpayer funding for CBC News might well fit the description, too.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againIn recent years, one area with much greater taxpayer funding — and also much more noticeable taxpayer-funded lobbying — is child care. In its 2021 budget, the Trudeau government committed up to $30 billion over five years, plus at least $9.2 billion per year after that, to establish a national child-care program aimed at reducing fees to $10 per day. This not only greatly increased the opportunity for lobbyists and activists to get their hands on taxpayers’ money, it also encouraged further activism to make yet more of taxpayers’ money available.In recent years, numerous activist groups have grabbed significant taxpayer handouts: Better Child Care Ontario, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. and Child Care Now, to name a few. They are unflagging in their advocacy for more government control and spending and a reduced role for the private sector.Recently in Winnipeg, Child Care Now’s executive director Morna Ballantyne gave a speech called “Scaling up what works: The future of child care in Canada.” The text was published online by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives which — surprise! — also receives significant taxpayer funding. According to Ballantyne, the Liberal plan “represented the kind of change child care advocates wanted. It shifted child care from primarily private to primarily public funding. It included distinctions-based Indigenous child-care funding. It strengthened government’s role in system management.”The language is telling. Ballantyne said the government takeover of child care was the change “advocates” — that is, activists — wanted. Not parents or taxpayers but activists. The activists at Child Care Now certainly wanted and have benefitted from the change. From a $647,630 taxpayer contribution for a 39-month project beginning in 2020, Child Care Now scaled its taxpayer funding up to $952,021 for a 36-month agreement with the federal government beginning in 2023.According to Ballantyne, although the Liberals’ national program has delivered some positive results serious challenges remain: operators are strained, spaces are scarce, there are workforce shortages, concerns over quality are increasing and government management has been weak. “Critics argue that these challenges prove that a publicly funded, not-for-profit system cannot work,” Ballantyne said. “But we know better.” She went on to lament provincial governments that allow private for-profit daycares to expand and insisted on more government control — and much more government funding — to solve these challenges.But detailed analyses of outcomes and statistics have consistently shown that child care-access is far worse after the launch of the national program than before it. Government overreach has harmed child-care quality. And the province with perhaps the worst performance in the country is British Columbia, whose NDP government began implementing $10-a-day government child care in 2018 (three years ahead of the Liberals’ national plan) and aggressively diminished the private sector’s role in providing care.What does the evidence show? In 2019, the proportion of families using child care who had difficulty finding it was 36.4 per cent nationally, but 46.5 per cent in B.C. After years of increased government control and spending, these proportions rose to 49.7 per cent nationally in 2025 and a staggering 67.7 per cent in B.C. Moreover, in B.C. the poorest families have the worst access to child care and government subsidies. Increased government control has clearly failed.If child-care outcomes across Canada are much worse after the massive increase in government control than before it, and families are faring worse where government control expanded most, a reasonable person might conclude that less government control, not more, is desirable. The child-care activists receiving large amounts of taxpayers’ money might not like it, but less government control would clearly benefit families with young children, private daycare operators and taxpayers. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.