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7 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,M ay 13,2021 insidehalton.com delmanor.com Expect the Unexpected At Delmanor, I enjoy the lifestyle I've become accustomed to, including my own interests and connecting with dear friends. But I can also have new experiences and relationships in a community where I feel safe. Photo taken prior to COVID. (905) 469-3232 1459 Nottinghill Gate, Oakville Three Ways to Support Your Hospital Play the Oakville Hospital 50/50 Lottery Become a Monthly Donor Create a Personal Fundraising PageWhen you support Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH), you make our community a healthier place to live. Learn more by visiting www.OakvilleHospitalFoundation.com When you support community healthcare, we all win! You can play for as little as $20. Purchase tickets online by visiting oakville5050.com Spread your generosity throughout the year. Your monthly gift delivers reliable and stable funding that will help with the cost of equipment, which government funding does not provide. Commemorate a special event such as a birthday or honour a loved one in a meaningful way. We've made it easy to create your own fundraising page to raise funds in support of OTMH. The closure of schools and child-care centres has been challenging for par- ents during the pandemic. Some parents had to leave their jobs or signifi- cantly reduce their hours to home school and care for young children, and the ma- jority of them are women. The pandemic has been called a "she-cession," be- cause women have been dis- proportionately impacted. The last year has made it obvious that the need for safe, affordable child care is critical and exposed some- thing that women have known for decades: without child care, parents -- usual- ly mothers -- can't work. This need isn't new. For decades we have known that the No. 1 thing hold- ing women back from ful- ly participating in the economy is access to child care. It's time to build an inclusive, sustainable, feminist and resilient economy that values women's work. The 2021 federal budget calls child care "essential so- cial infrastructure" and, as a critical part of a feminist economic recovery, the bud- get proposes to provide $30 billion over five years and $9.2 billion per year thereaf- ter to build a high-quality, affordable and accessible early learning and child- care system across Canada. This funding will allow for a 50 per cent reduction in average fees for regulated early learning and child care by 2022 and ensure an- nual growth in child-care spaces across the country so that parents will be able to access high quality early learning and child care for an average of $10 a day by 2026. It will also continue to progress toward high-quali- ty, culturally appropriate child care for Indigenous children, guided by Indige- nous priorities. This is essential social in- frastructure that will drive jobs and growth. It will help us build a post-pandemic economy that is more productive and competitive, and grow the middle class. Pam Damoff is the MP for Oakville North-Burling- ton and parliamentary secretary to the minister of Indigenous Services. She can be reached at Pam.Da- moff@parl.gc.ca or www.mpdamoff.ca. BETTER ACCESS TO CHILD CARE GOOD FOR EVERYONE OPINION FUNDING WILL IMPROVE THIS VITAL SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE, WRITES PAM DAMOFF PAM DAMOFF Column SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AT INSIDEHALTON.COM UBI A RECIPE FOR FAILURE (The following letter was addressed to financial col- umnist Peter Watson and a copy was filed with the Bea- ver). I have been reading your articles for years and typi- cally find them common sense and a good reminder of investing with logic and reason. However, your piece on Universal Basic Income (UBI) was so disturbing that I am writing for the first time to address this opinion. UBI is one more step closer to socialism, which is a small step from commu- nism. The utopia of social- ism is a dream for people not interested in working hard to get ahead on the backs of those who have de- cided to make success their mission for a better life. A system that is depen- dent on half the population working to pay for the en- tire population is doomed and has never worked -- ev- er. Where is the drive to suc- ceed and contribute to this economy if punished by higher taxes to pay for soci- ety as a whole? This country already has social programs to provide minimum wage, health care, welfare, education and government assistance pro- grams to allow a helping hand to those who need it. These are all good things. Why doesn't socialism work? 1. Increased government control leading to failure. 2. No incentive to work 3. Politicians empowered to control all things regard- less of logic and good sense. Do we teach our children to work hard, get educated and cut out their own path to become whatever it is they dream of? But, if you really just want to play on- line video games, smoke weed and chill, that's OK too, because I will make sure that a decent lifestyle is maintained for you by oth- ers. Hmmm. STEVE LAMB, OAKVILLE