Toronto, April 12: Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, said safe early education and child care is an “economic imperative”. It also makes sense to consider the principle of universal basic income. He made the remarks in an interview with CBS Television’s Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Burton on Sunday.

Speaking at the Rosemary Burton Live event, Minister Dominic LeBlanc said, “Access to safe early learning and child care, high-quality child care, we think is now an economic imperative. It’s one social program done properly that has a direct impact on the growth of the Canadian economy.”

However, Minister LeBlanc said that a national early education program and child care program is not easily implementable, as each province has private and government child care programs. Still, the government is determined to take that policy forward. About it, he said, “I think Canadians should expect our government to do something very significant in this area because it’s critical for the rebuilding of the economy as well as the social fabric of the country. It, frankly, allows parents to participate in the workforce in a way that’s not only good for the economy, but it’s also good for families.”

LeBlanc added that while it is challenging to introduce and fund a universal basic income policy, the ruling Liberal Party is keen to consider “any thoughtful policy proposition”. He said, “I have a number of my colleagues in caucus who have been working for, in some cases a number of years, on what a universal basic income might look like.” While this valuable topic continues to be discussed, he said there is a significant challenge of implementing it with an estimated $85 billion a year. So in his words, “That’s exactly the challenge, and that’s why it hasn’t been [implemented]. If it was very easy, some previous governments would have done it. However, a policy that we think deserves a lot of consideration.”

Dominic LeBlanc, Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs, said at the same event that former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney’s speech at the Liberal Convention was an expression of his support. In his words, “I would hope Mr. Carney might, might consider running for the party. He obviously has a huge contribution to make to Canada, to the discussion, to the policy around fighting climate change.”

Minister LeBlanc commented that he was appointed governor of the central bank by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but now he is fully with the liberal camp. In this case, he said, “He has an enormous contribution to make to public policy in the country. And the fact that he’s chosen to do it with the Liberal Party, I think says something very reassuring about the economic direction of our government.”