Thanks for that question.
Last year when I was here, I was probably sitting directly beside that woman, and we've had some active e-mail discussion since then.
I don't see the two as competing with each other. There is some benefit to providing financial support to families with small children, but what that doesn't cover are the opportunities inherent in child care for families in terms of setting standards.
One of the problems is that even if you increase the demand by increasing the financial capacity, the supply in terms of quality day care settings that meet some very basic criteria is not there. Again, this is clearly primarily a provincial jurisdiction, but we're talking to you about it because we see some opportunities for the federal government to serve as a catalyst in bringing national standards into place. Once that money is spent, there are tremendous opportunities being wasted and some safety considerations as well in making sure that the money is being spent for safe, high-quality day care centres with appropriately trained personnel. Giving the money just to the individuals as a sole approach to this problem is insufficient.