An Ontario MPP will resign. Child-care costs a big reason why. This Guelph prof says that's a problem

News that an Ontario MPP has stepped down from her role, in part, because of high child-care costs should not be brushed aside, Leah Levac says.

Levac, an associate professor of political science at the University of Guelph, says it's concerning systemic reasons may keep people such as single parents from representing their communities.

This week, Kitchener Centre MPP Laura Mae Lindo announced she would step down at the end of the next legislative session and take a job at the University of Waterloo in July.

Lindo said as a single parent, she wanted to be closer to her three children, but she also cited high child-care expenses for when she needed to be at Queen's Park when the Ontario Legislature was sitting.

Lindo, a member of the NDP, says she was offered help to pay for child care, but it was taxable.

"What happened for me was, a decision was made that they would try to help me with the additional care costs, but they made it a taxable benefit, so when I filed my taxes, I ended up owing $6,000," she said in an interview Thursday.

"They explained to me that if I carried on and was at Queen's Park Monday to Thursday for the entirety of our schedule, I would always owe somewhere between $6,000 and $8,000," she said. 

"I don't know a single parent that would be able to find that, to pay to be the representative for the community, no matter how much they love their community."

Levac sat down with Craig Norris, host of CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition, to talk about Lindo's decision and why she says people can't brush it off as a one-time situation.

The following has been edited for length and clarity. The audio from this interview, and the one with Lindo, are at the bottom of this article.

Craig Norris: Why should we be talking about this? What is significant about this — an MP stepping down because of child-care costs?

Leah Levac: I think this is significant because it reminds us that there continue to be a number of barriers facing historically marginalized groups entering politics. 

Of course, everybody who parents could be facing a child-care barrier, but there's no question that women disproportionately bear these costs — and then, lone parents further.

So paying attention to these kinds of issues is really important because when we lose MPPs like Laura Mae Lindo, we lose the expertise, we lose the lived experience and we know that diversity and politics matter for a number of reasons. 

CN: When someone looks at Ms. Lindo's situation, for example, and they were thinking of running and perhaps they're in a similar position, do you think that discourages people who would like to represent their community?

LL: Yes, I think it does … I spend a lot of time thinking about local level politics, although at the end, these problems exist across jurisdictions. But I know absolutely that lack of access to appropriate child care, expensive child care, are among issues that get discussed and documented as being barriers to women's entry in politics. 

So it is certainly the case that, not only do people already understand it as a barrier, but then when they see it actively playing out, I think it reinforces … the problematic nature of the lack of appropriate support.

CN: What would need to change then in this province to make the job of being an MPP more appealing or I guess more doable for single parents or even just parents of young children?

LL: I think MPP Lindo herself made some important comments in response to this problem, talking about things like non-taxable child-care support.

I think we can also do a better job of providing other more flexible supports related to child care, even things like adjacent and accessible daycare facilities.

We also need to think about further upstream about the strength of parental leave policies. So again, that's especially an issue at the municipal level, but more broadly thinking about how parental leaves can be fully taken up and respected while people are serving in political office. 

But, you know, I think also, we can't lose sight of the fact that this is part of a broader structural and systemic issue, which I think MPP Lindo has also pointed out. So we need to have much more transformative and much more urgent conversations about the ways that political office remains inaccessible and the ways sexism and racism continue to play out in these institutions, so we need to talk about the culture of overwork.

And we need to acknowledge that women face disproportionate amounts of violence in political office, and vitriol and sort of mediated hatred. 

I think we actually need to, very urgently, gather experiential expertise, and listen and act on what they're recommending, right? What would make it better for women, especially racialized women, Indigenous women, others who face unique sort of barriers to engagement, what would make it better? 

And then we need to do what they say.

CN: Do you think this is an issue that's maybe above and beyond the province — should the federal government get in on this?

LL: I think all levels of government need to be in on it. I think it plays out in different kinds of ways because of the different dynamics of what representation looks like at the federal level compared to the provincial or municipal levels. 

And of course, to the extent possible, different jurisdictions should be learning from one another. So we should take promising practices.

So yes, the federal government should be in on it, but they should be paying particular attention to the federal level and the provinces all need to do their own work on how to improve the situation around diversity and representation and responding to — I mean, the barriers are well documented, Craig — so like I say, we just need to pay attention to many smart, proposed solutions and how those play out differently across jurisdictions.

CN: At the end of the day, I mean we risk losing diverse voices in roles of leadership?

LL: We absolutely do and there are actually some really urgent reasons why we should be concerned about that, ranging from the way people see themselves, the way that diverse constituencies see themselves represented by political bodies, to research that demonstrates that we get better and more well-thought out decisions — I'm summarizing a little bit here — but when we have more diverse voices around the table considering and debating problems and their resolve.

It's a serious policy issue and it's a serious political participation issue and it's a serious sort of legitimacy and transparency issue, as well.

LISTEN | Why this poli-sci prof says it's a big problem a Kitchener MPP is stepping down because of child-care costs:

MPP Laura Mae Lindo joined CBC K-W's The Morning Edition the morning after she announced she would step down and talked about that decision.

LISTEN | Need to be local for family, lack of child care support for single parent MPPs behind Laura Mae Lindo's decision to step down: