Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Madam Minister, thank you for coming.
I'm looking at categories that are identified as early learning and child care in the 2007 federal budget. One of the categories refers to the multilateral agreement on early learning and child care: $350 million. That was the 2003 agreement under the Liberal government some time ago. But then in 2007, for child care spaces initiatives there was $250 million, which goes to the Canada social assistance transfer, but no reporting specifically, although the previous one did. So there's a total actual transfer of $600 million, not the $1.1 billion that I know the government claims.
But to continue, the category also lists things that I find rather interesting. On the universal child care benefit for $2.4 million, even a government website indicates that people are using this for anything but child care—for RESPs, family recreation, paying the bills, and so on—not to mention the fact that for those people who do need child care spaces, after they pay taxes they really don't have enough. So this is really not a child care program.
In addition to that, the next category is child care expenses through the child care expense deduction. This is a deduction, not direct funding of child care spaces.
The next one is even more curious. It's the Canada child tax credit, which is an income plan for children. It is not a child care program. Then it says total early learning and child care expending claimed by the Conservative government is $5.6 billion or $5.7 billion.
Out of all this, I'd like you to clear up something for me. It seems to me, from what I've seen here, with the exception of this $350 million, which went way back to 2003, and then the $250 million that your department put in for 2007, that there is no other direct transfer to provinces for child care spaces. Am I right? That's what the category shows in your budget of 2007, and I cannot consider the other categories I've just enunciated as having anything to do with child care spaces or early learning and child care at all.