Hot off the presses in Helsinki, Helsingin Sanomat previews proposed changes to the system of parental leave, to ensure that it’s no longer structured to ensure that women assume primary responsibility for child care.
According to the paper, the proposed overhaul promises to be a bone of contention among politicians, with Finns Party chair Timo Soini already drawing a line in the sand on the issue.
"This government will not make any changes to the child home care allowance, even if other government parties are partial to this proposal," Soini wrote in his blog, shooting down a suggestion by the Social Democrats’ youth wing while at the same time firing a warning shot across the bow of the National Coalition Party.
Politicians and policy makers want to reform the current system, in which mothers receive a maternity allowance covering 105 working days – nearly twice as much as dads’ 54-day allowance. Altogether, this allowance covers less than one year of an infants’ life and many parents are reluctant to place their kids in daycare at such a young age, so they continue to care for the child at home with the help of the home care allowance.
Both parents are eligible for the child home care allowance, but more often than not, moms opt to remain at home with their tiny tots. This is largely because of traditional gender roles and the fact that fathers typically earn more than their partners, so it makes sense for them to return to work. The end result is that mothers often miss out on developing their careers, their pay and their pension benefits. Sometimes mothers may find that there is no work for them when they’re ready to return.
Reformists point out that the current model has been cobbled together in bits and pieces since the 1960s and has become complex and inflexible. Moreover, it doesn’t adequately address the needs of modern-day parents, increasing numbers of whom work part-time, have short fixed-term contracts, are entrepreneurs or simply don’t reflect the traditional family model of mom, dad and the kids.
In spite of sharp differences over how to proceed, politicians and policy makers agree on one essential point: dismantling the system altogether is out of the question, as that route would only shift the burden of infant care to the daycare system. Further fragmentation would also weaken the system of support for families, 90 percent of whom rely on it.
Opposition: Tax rebate will bypass intended targets
Meanwhile Turun Sanomat focuses on another political flashpoint, a government proposal to provide sole traders and partnerships with a five-percent tax break on their earnings next year. The measure is the administration’s attempt to show entrepreneurs running small businesses that its not only taking care of big corporates, which benefited from a lower corporate income tax rate introduced by the previous government.
However the opposition SDP has slammed the 123 million-euro move as misguided, saying that it’s not at all the small man who stands to benefit.
"Unfortunately, it’s not the physiotherapists, hairdressers or shoemakers who will benefit from this. The list of beneficiaries is completely different: pharmacists, private doctors and lawyers," charged SDP MP Timo Harakka.
The opposition was also openly skeptical that the tax benefit would encourage micro-business owners to hire, as government hopes.
"Wouldn’t it be smarter to make it easier to hire the first employee by suspending the costs related to hiring for a year and reducing taxes on low income earners?" queried outgoing Greens chair Ville Niinistö.
Metro expansion to spawn mass of new shopping centres
Business daily Kauppalehti offers a positive spin on the oft-delayed and costly westward expansion of the Helsinki metro system by devoting a considerable amount of real estate to the additional investments the project is expected to generate.
Back in August officials estimated that the budget for the project had ballooned by an estimated 30 percent to reach nearly 1.2 billion euros. Developers in Finland seem to agree that urban centres can never have a glut of shopping centres. And Kauppalehti wants to remind readers that the slow-moving metro expansion will spawn new developments such as the Lauttasaari shopping centre, an extension of the Iso Omena centre, a metro complex in Niittykumppu, a development project in Tapiola centre and Espoo’s Lippulaiva shopping centre.
"Every euro invested in the metro extension is producing an additional five euros of investment. You begin to understand this when you follow the investment targets under construction in the vicinity of the metro stations," said Matti Kokkinen, chief executive of Länsimetro, the company driving the metro enterprise.
Tapiola alone is expected to undergo a transformation over the next few years. Vesa Immonen, CEO of financial group LähiTapiola’s Real Estate Asset Management subsidiary said that it will invest between 500 and 600 million euros in Tapiola by 2020.
So far the real estate developer has already completed the first stage of another shopping centre – Ainoa. "We have rented almost 98 percent of the space for the second phase, which will be completed in spring 2017 and rentals for the third phase have begun," Immonen said.
All of these new shopping centres will need patrons, and it looks like the company has already tapped the right income demographic for the spanking-new development. Immonen said hundreds of homes are to be built atop the Ainoa mall and LähiTapiola has already sold half of them, although the price per square metre ranges from a staggering 6,600 to 12,200 euros.
