Thank you.
When I first was elected in 2004, I discovered that there was a move to efficiency in how the federal government handed out money. We had calls for proposals that either did not empower local organizations or forced them to become grant writers as opposed to service deliverers. I saw it.
I got involved in the access to community empowerment employment program, which was cut because they were going to have a national approach. It didn't make any sense. We were able to overturn that, I'm glad to say. Whenever you as an MP do anything that you take a little delight in, it just reinforces the fact that so many systems are broken. If we were to just let people at the ground level do their work, then there would be a lot of solutions.
I'd like to ask about child care. I see this as a priority. I've done round tables around the country on child care, as it is part of my area of responsibility, and one of the issues is whether to target funding to those most in need. In health care, we have a national universal health care system. You don't ask a family whose child is in grade two whether they have the money to pay for it. Wilbur Cohen, the famous social scientist in the U.S., said that when you design programs for the poor, they usually become poor programs, meaning that they don't get the attention they need.
Do you agree that a national child care program ought to be universal?