I'd like to ensure that your committee knows three important economic facts: one comes out of a 1998 study done by University of Toronto economists Gordon Cleveland and Michael Krashinsky, who tell us that there's a 2:1 return for every dollar spent on child care. That's a long-term cost.
Evidence from Quebec's experiment, the wonderful program that's made so much progress, tells us that 40% of the cost of Quebec's child care system is recouped the following year in increased taxes. That comes from Lefebvre and Merrigan.
Finally, the study that we were able to do in Winnipeg in 2004 tells us that every dollar spent on child care in Winnipeg that year returned $1.38 to the Winnipeg economy and a $1.45 to Canada.
These are prudent investments in Canada's economic infrastructure and competitiveness, and they tell us that the cost of child care is largely returned to Canadians at par and possibly even more than par.