Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to go back to child care, if I could.
Ms. Lysack made a couple of the comments during her speech, and at other times. She talked about the universal child care benefit being “punitive to working mothers”, which implies that it actually punishes them compared to what the situation would be if they didn't have it at all. That is an unbelievable comment.
Second, she made a comment that eight out of ten children do not have access to the child care their parents want for them. The flip side of that would be that only two of ten children actually have access to the child care their parents want for them. Anybody who actually considers that statement in light of much research, the Today's Parent poll, the Vanier Institute poll, and just common sense.... Just through talking to parents--for any of us in the room who have door-knocked--even if you are on the other side of the issue, you would realize that the idea that eight out of ten children do not have access to the child care their parents want for them is absolutely ridiculous. I find it odd that they, coming from a research-based, federal government-funded organization, could even throw a number like that out there.
She used the phrase “early years form the foundation for the child”. Finally we have something we agree on. I do believe that early years form the foundation for the child, and I guess I would ask who should decide what the foundation should be. Should it be the government that decides what the foundation should be, or should it be the parents?
I would argue that your organization is simply driven by an ideology that children are best served by a government-run day care system. She uses the word “universal”. Universal means everyone, so in other words, everyone would send their kids to a government-run day care institution. But not everyone wants to do that.
The Liberal plan simply funded parents who were wanting to send their kids to day care. There was no other option. The Conservative plan gives the same amount of money to everyone. It gives the same amount of money per child to every parent across the country. Whether it be the universal child care benefit or whether it be the child tax credit that we're talking about, it treats every parent the same, and those parents can make the best decision for their family. No one has ever suggested that the universal child care benefit is supposed to pay all of the costs of a child care program for a child. It is supposed to enable parents to make the best decision that they can make for their family.