Thank you, and thank you all for coming here today. I wish I could spend time talking to all of you, but I'm going to have to focus. I'll start with Mr. Friesen and Ms. Shortt.
Your presentations were very close to my heart. My daughter works for an organization in Penticton dedicated to immigration community services. She's an ESL teacher. She's worked there for the last three years and for all of those years her budgets have been cut by the federal government, starting with the Conservatives and followed by the Liberals. She hasn't moved back into my basement yet, but she's down to half time. She teaches English largely to Syrian refugee families, whereas, when she started, that wasn't the case. I want, first of all, for both you to comment on those cuts and the impacts they've had.
Mr. Friesen mentioned child care. When I talked to my daughter yesterday, I asked what I should find out today. She said to talk about child care, because she's seeing women who are already in difficult situations being isolated at home, not getting the language training they need, not getting out in the community. This delays, as Ms. Shortt mentioned, the time for the integration of these families.
Both of you could comment on those issues.
Thank you.