Stephen Harper unveiled a Conservative plan on Monday that would give parents of young children $100 a month for child care.

The Tory leader made the announcement at a noisy day-care centre in Ottawa. "This is just like a caucus meeting," he said on a campaign stop for the Jan. 23 federal election.

Addressing the challenges parents face in raising kids while trying to earn a living, Harper said, "The Conservative plan for families will help parents find that balance."

Stephen Harper at an Ottawa day-care centre, Monday morning. (CP Photo/Jonathan Hayward)

The Conservatives' two-part plan includes money to help create child-care spaces as well as the $100-a-month "choice in child-care allowance."

With the new allowance, families would receive $1,200 a year for each child under the age of six.

"Parents can spend the money however they wish. You can choose the child-care option that best suits your family's needs," Harper said.

"It's hard enough to be a parent. But government should help parents with choices not limit them," Harper said.

"In fact, the only people who should be making these choices are parents, not politicians, not the government."

Some child-care advocates, however, say the Tory plan is based on old, outmoded thinking.

"We've been trying to fund child care through benefits to families or parent subsidies for 30 years, and it hasn't worked," said Kira Heineck, executive director of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. "We'd like to see investment directly in programs across the country."

The new program would not replace any existing major benefit program, Harper said. It would be in addition to the current Canada Child Tax Benefit, the National Child Benefit Supplement and the child-care expense deduction.

A Conservative government would also honour the one-year bilateral commitments the Liberal government reached with provinces for institutional child care, Harper said.

The new benefit would not be clawed back from middle-income families, he said. It would be taxable in the hands of the spouse earning the lower income.

"Government should support your choices, not limit them," he said.

Liberal Leader Paul Martin said he would put money into child-care programs. In the last campaign, the Liberals promised to build a $5 billion Quebec-style national child-care system that they claimed would create 250,000 licensed child-care spaces by 2009.

"Mr. Harper has said he does not believe, and I quote, in subsidized child care and early development," Martin told reporters in St. John's. "Well, I do."

The second part of the Conservative plan calls for $250 million a year to be set aside for investment in community child care. The money is meant to increase the availability of child care by offering tax credits for capital investments in child-care spaces.

Harper predicted the plan would create 125,000 spaces over five years.

The Conservative funding would be in addition to the existing benefits available to Canadians, including the Canada Child Tax Benefit . The total cost of the program would be $10.9 billion over five years.