Thanks very much.
I tend to agree with both Christine and Sheila on a couple of things. I think child care is something that acts as a deterrent, if a lot of women with a baby or who were having one knew when they got elected that they would be needing to find two child care spaces. Obviously I live in Ottawa; I serve in Toronto. That was eye-opening to me. I think Sheila also makes a wonderful point. My daughter walks around Queen's Park now at 11 years old knowing every member of all of the caucuses, and they've watched her grow. It's a tremendous privilege, in fact. She knows two members of this committee, both Anita and Scott. I think in and of itself that's important.
I think if there's one thing I could impress upon, it would effectively be trying to find a way for new members or sitting members who do have children to understand that Queen's Park child care and the House of Commons child care are not something that would be suitable for our children. Not that it's not quality care; that's not where I'm going. But in terms of our work hours it's the fact that we would have to have two spots. We only sit four days a week, not the full five days as you folks do, but that's certainly a consideration. We had a period in 2007 where five women from the government of the day didn't re-offer. That's why I always come up with this line: it's not just about getting us elected anymore, it's also about keeping us here. The issue each one of them cited in 2007, which was my second election, was that they had to spend more time with their families, so it's striking that balance.
Some of us, Anita, have to find different ways in order to accommodate our growing families. For example, on PD days I try to take a day with my daughter because I know I'm away all week, and she has one this Friday with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. My new MP Chandra Arya is going to be opening up his constituency office, and she will be going. It's highly likely that Victoria Varner will be with her mother that day. We try to accommodate little things. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. But we're very fortunate to be able to call this our career. It's just that it would help if sometimes our institution tweaked some of the things, like having a bathroom, or having a change table, or having a high chair, or having a resource where we could find child care in the city that we're not from.