This gives me an opportunity to raise a point that I did not have time to mention in the brief I submitted. We are calling on the government to put an end to the UCCB, or Universal Child Care Benefit, because tax credits are measures that apply to individuals—and the same thing applies to the public transit tax credit—are ineffective and unfair, in our opinion, because they do not benefit all segments of society. These investments are not intended to improve public transit or fund daycare services. We believe it would be better to transfer the money to the provinces for them to invest. For example, in the case of the UCCB, Quebec would be in a position to recover half a billion dollars, which could then be used to increase the number of available spots in daycare or early childhood centres.
At the present time, the number of daycare spots is woefully inadequate. We believe it would be preferable, by far, to transfer the money to the provinces so that they can invest in public transit, social housing and daycare programs, rather than giving the money to individuals through non-refundable tax credits that do not apply to everyone.