Should the federal government decide what form of child care is best, using the tax system to favour institutional care over home care Or should the government be neutral and allow parents to make their own child care choices, free from financial penalties

In light of election promises to spend billions of tax dollars on government-regulated daycare, these questions deserve answers.

Taxation has a huge impact on family life. Canada's three levels of government consume close to one half of Canadians' earnings through sales, income, property and other taxes. But Canada's tax system does not recognize the cost of raising children, let alone the cost of providing a basic standard of living for oneself or one's family. The lowest federal income tax rate of 16% kicks in as soon as a person earns more than $8,012 in a year. The spousal exemption is a paltry $6,803. As for children, the tax system provides no exemption at all. This means that a family with children starts paying 16% federal income tax on its income in excess of $14,815 per year.

Ottawa should stop taxing people who earn minimum wage, and raise the basic personal exemption and the spousal exemption to $15,000 each. That would enable families to provide a basic standard of living for themselves, before having to send 16% of their earnings to Ottawa.

As for spending billions of tax dollars on institutional daycare, this would only benefit parents who prefer that kind of child care. It doesn't help other families, who make financial sacrifices to enable dad or mom or both to care for children at home. Some studies suggest that institutional daycare is as good - or perhaps better - than "parent-care" at home. Other studies suggest the opposite. This debate has gone on for decades, and will likely continue for decades more. The federal government should not take sides in this debate by forcing all Canadians to pay for state-run daycare with their tax dollars.

Rather than spending tax dollars on institutional daycare, the tax system should allow parents to claim an exemption (eg. $2,400 per year per child) - an amount free from federal and provincial income taxes. How parents spend their own $2,400 should be entirely up to them. There are as many different child care arrangements as there are families. Parents should be free to choose what kind of child care they think is best, without paying higher taxes for the "wrong" choice. A per-child tax exemption would help empower all parents to make their own child care choices - including the choice of full-time or part-time institutional daycare.

On this same topic of respecting parental choice, Ottawa should end its tax discrimination against families supported by one income-earner. Two different families, each earning $60,000 per year, should pay the same in federal tax, regardless of whether that $60,000 was earned by one person or by two people. The federal government should treat all families equally, without rewarding or punishing different kinds of financial arrangements and time arrangements which families set up for themselves.

If politicians really want to help families, the starting point should be allowing families to support themselves, and respecting parents' child care choices.