We need to look no further than Quebec to see the impact that a good, solid child care system can have on women's employability. I'm not sure exactly of the numbers--I could certainly look those up--but the analysis of the impact of the Quebec child care system showed us that they went from having the lowest participation of mothers in the workforce to having a significant increase in a very short period of time. I think it was something like from 61% or 62% to 67% or 69%. So it's really significant.
I think what's important to recognize about that is that it is by choice. When women don't have good support, and good family supports to help them with their family responsibilities, they are not able to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to them. So I think it's critical that we look at that impact of what child care can do for working mothers.
I'll just add a little anecdote about the province of Alberta, where there are critical labour force shortages and where they have vacant day care spaces. You might wonder why that is. One child care director told me that one of her ECE's left at lunchtime for her lunch break and didn't come back in the afternoon because she was offered a new position at the restaurant where she went for lunch. She would be making almost double the money she was at the child care centre. So they can't even employ the caregivers to care for the children because the system is so under-resourced.
It's not just a matter of investing capital or anything like that to create spaces. We have to go with a system of supporting provinces and territories to build and sustain a system of child care.