Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have a question for you, Ms. Ballantyne. Obviously, you can imagine that I really liked your presentation and your proposals.
In Quebec, we have experienced the arrival of early childhood centres, low-cost public day care centres. According to a study by economist Pierre Fortin, this has enabled 70,000 women to return to the workforce. So it's a very significant increase in collective productivity.
Conversely, not having affordable public day care can prevent women from entering the workforce or remove them from the workforce. This morning, when we heard the audience's comments, a grandpa spoke. He was very happy that his daughter had twins. However, it has also caused some difficulties. They realized that the only day care centre that could offer a place for the twins was a 45-minute drive from home and that the cost of day care for these two babies was the same as their mother's income. She wondered if she would be better off leaving work to stay home, because it was too complicated and too expensive to send her children to day care.
Isn't this a good example of the risks to our economy that this lack of programs poses?