Thank you, Mr. Chair.
One of the things we haven't really talked about today, and I'm kind of surprised about it, is child care. In the last election it was a pretty important issue. I think in the next election it will be very clear that there are two very different ideologies when it comes to families and child care in this country. There's the Liberal-NDP-Bloc view that the only option worth federal consideration is a universal, institutional, top-down, unionized, nine-to-five option. Of course, it has been mentioned that there would be a choice for families who want to opt out, but that option wouldn't be worthy of any federal support, for sure. Then there's the Conservative view that we favour equality of choice for families to make the best decision for their own circumstances.
I noticed some interesting quotes. Back in September, the Times and Transcript in Moncton wrote: “The former federal Liberal government was attempting to initiate a massive, universal daycare program that would have cost Canadian taxpayers billions, all on the basis of oft-heard claims by lobby groups that it was essential and would solve the problem of massive shortages, but that were based on dubious research and questionable facts.”
Even, actually, the former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister, Sheila Copps, said the last agreement--that would be the Liberal agreement “saw some provinces rake in millions without creating a single new daycare space. The Liberal plan is a cash cow for governments while families are cash poor.”
Then actually, the current finance critic for the Liberal Party back in 2000 made, I thought, a very good statement here. He said: “I am strongly opposed to any new national day care program with the cost running into the tens of billions of dollars. Given economic realities and competing demands on government resources, these are programs we cannot afford.” That was back in 2000, and of course, I would note that this is completely inconsistent with Liberal support of Bill C-303.
I have three questions.
Generally, I'd like to know if you can tell me what action the Conservative government has taken to give Canadian parents real choice in child care?
Secondly, and a little bit more specifically, how much money has been transferred to the provinces to support creation of child care spaces? How many have been announced thus far?
The third question I had was regarding Bill C-303. Can you maybe explain to the committee why our government will not support this bill?