The $500 million allocated in the last budget towards a child care program was a first step in what really needs to be a broader federal policy framework for working with the provinces and territories and indigenous peoples. We have lots of research over many years of child care advocacy that shows how expensive child care has become. Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, has the second-highest child care costs in the country, Ontario being the highest. This causes women either to stay home or work part time at precarious work. It keeps children out of regulated child care.
It's very important that there be a national child care and national monies invested. The studies, which come mostly from Quebec's child care program, show that an investment of $15 a day actually provides a return on investment, putting $1 or $2 back into the economy, so it can pay for itself in fiscal terms.
In social terms, it also raises families out of poverty. Allowing women to go back to work allows them to make more money, which they reinvest in the economy, because workers spend more money locally in the economy.
Research also shows us that early childhood education allows children to thrive regardless of their economic or social status, because there is a standard of child care there. By working with the provinces and having sustained operational funding, as well as sustained funding for setting up a policy framework, we can make something of high quality that's universally accessible. By building a system that's public or not-for-profit, we can create an equality across the country that doesn't exist right now. It will help raise families out of poverty.
Again, for many families, child care is incredibly expensive. It doesn't help our economy if people tend to stay home or if people can't afford to pay child care.