IMFC Update

 Please Note: This is a summary of the events and speeches in my own words for educational, information, and entertainment purposes only. It is not the speakers' exact words and should not be taken as such. It also may contain errors due to the nature of the medium. I am not responsible for any of them, use at your own risk.

Dave Quist gave an update on the Institute for Marriage and Family Conference.

This is their fifth family policy conference. Why do we do this, what effect does our work have?

Something that was different about this election was how much family policy was talked about. While we don’t take credit for all of that, we can say that we have helped to bring family policy issues to public attention.

Family policies that different parties were talking about in the election were:

Family income splitting
Child fitness tax credit
Money for childcare
Caregiver benefits for those taking care of the elderly
Maternity benefits
Help for Moms to give birth at home

IMFC staff did 80 different interviews over the past elections weeks, as the media has started talking about family policy issues too.

Why is there so much talk?

Family issues are very high profile (Just look at the number of advertisements aimed at families)

We understrand intrinsically that some types of families are better than others, our research investigates this and substantiates it.

Demographics are bringing in trends which cannot be ignored, as the population ages, costs go up, and the tax base shrinks.

For too long politicians have looked at social and fiscal matters as separate issues. However a family’s fiscal situation will affect the decisions they make, and through them the economy.

Fiscal policies tend to impact the short term, while social policies affect the long term.

Most people know that family is very important, they are the people who we depend on in a crisis, the people we first learn from as children.

The prominence of family issues in this election show that politicians are starting to get it. Now we can talk to them about the research results. We should be accountable for the research we do, but politicians should be accountable for what they do with that research.

IMFC goals for the next five years.

Put forward credible research on family and marriage in the following key areas:

Family and Education
Family and Demographics
Family and Finance
Family and Children
Family and Community
Family and Marriage