Thank you. That's a very important question.
While it's true that when parents are asked about child care and who is the best person to look after their children, we are, of course, all going to say, “I am”. Who would say, “Someone else; I had this baby so I could have someone else raise them”?
The reality is, though, that all of us have to function in a society that is filled with demands. Even for women who are not employed outside the home, there are demands and expectations to be caregivers to other family members who are ill or who need care for some other reason. There is an expectation for them to be involved in their communities, to volunteer and contribute in so many different capacities in the voluntary sector. All of this is putting demands on them so they can't stay at home all of the time with their children, nor should that be a choice that's imposed on them.
When we talk about choice, what we know is that in Quebec, when the child care system was introduced--when they introduced high-quality, affordable child care centres--nobody had to choose it, but parents chose it in droves. They voted by going to it. And Quebec had to very quickly ramp up their program, much in advance of what they anticipated.
I'll just close this comment with the acknowledgment that what we're seeing in Quebec in terms of productivity is incredibly important. We're seeing increased participation in the labour force. We're seeing a much greater return. There's actually a report on the Quebec child care system that the C.D. Howe Institute released that shows there's already a 40% return because of this increased productivity. So while our economists from the University of Toronto predicted a couple of years ago a 2:1 return, we're actually now seeing that in Quebec. We're seeing a return of 40% on their investment already, and they're far from a universal program.