Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, and thanks to everyone, because I think this is an important conversation this afternoon.
My first question is for Ms. Kobluk from the Income Security Advocacy Centre. As I was hearing your earlier exchange with my colleague Mr. Blaikie, I just wanted to reiterate a couple of the things that our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance indicated this morning.
I think there was a very clear commitment made by our Deputy Prime Minister that we're working on the GIS/CERB issue. We're aware of the issue, we're concerned about it, it's a priority, and stay tuned for some news. I wanted to make sure that this was reiterated, because I think there is a lot of compassion from all sides of the floor on the issue.
I think the other point I want to make is around the audit around CERB. The CRA is actually coming before this committee tomorrow, so I think the committee members can actually ask more specific questions then, but I do know that the CRA and Service Canada have made it very clear that when they're doing their audits, they're flexible, they're empathetic, they're compassionate and they are not out in any way to try to harass our vulnerable Canadians to repay money that they're not able to.
As for how this emanates for me in my riding, originally when there was some concern, particularly from some of my artists, to be honest, around the auditing of the CERB benefits, I had a lot of calls to my office. I will say to you that a number of them have been audited, and I'll say to you that I've literally received zero calls right now about the auditing around CERB and any of their concerns. It's gone from a bit of a crescendo around emails and calls to literally zero right now. For me and my riding, I have a working-class riding, and it's definitely something that I'm always concerned about in terms of how the people of my riding are being treated. I did want to relay that to you.
My question to you, though—and this is something I brought up to our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance this morning—is the importance of national child care. I wonder if you could maybe comment on the importance of the Ontario government signing on to the child care plan.