Thank you, Chair.
Good afternoon to my colleagues.
Minister, thanks for coming.
I have just a couple of comments before I ask you some questions.
When I went door to door back in 2015, 2019 and 2021, I saw that people in my riding of Saint John—Rothesay needed support. One thing I'm most proud of is that, as Liberals, we believe that government can do good things for people. We can come forth with national and, I would say, transformational programs that help people most in need. I think as a government we can be and should be judged by how we try to support the most vulnerable and the people who need support most.
You mentioned the Canada child benefit and the changes we made to it in 2016. We targeted it to people in need and increased it with inflation, and so many families, single mothers and so on have benefited and used it as a lifeline.
Further to that, whether it's the child care program or the school meal program, we want to help families, help single mothers and help single parents. I think, as you said, we still have a lot of work to do. There are a lot of challenges we have, but we are doing a lot for Canadians, and I want to thank you for that.
I want to talk about my new premier in New Brunswick, Premier Susan Holt, who is a breath of fresh air after Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs, who fought us every step of the way with respect to programs. We had to drag him kicking and screaming over the early learning and child care line, and he didn't want to participate in the school food program. We saw what happened to Premier Higgs. He lost his own seat. New Brunswickers clearly rejected that form of politics.
To go back to the throne speech that was read two weeks back, building a Canada-wide early learning and child care system relies on dedication and the hard work of early childhood educators, making it essential to attract, reattract and retain skilled professionals. I was really pleased to hear Premier Holt recognize, in the speech from the throne, the critical role the ECEs play in this effort.
How can we best support these educators? I think it's by improving working conditions, increasing wages and offering greater financial support to students entering the field.