In Australia—which is a federation much like Canada—under government changes in the early 1990s, child care funding switched. The kind of policy-scape that had promoted a primarily not-for-profit and community-based child care model across the country was overturned. It created a fresh environment in which entrepreneurs could get public dollars and reap private profits. Naturally, they seized this business opportunity. There was a virtual monopoly, at one point, when ABC Learning, one company, provided over 40% of the spaces in Australia. It went bankrupt. There's much more to say about this.
I want to observe that the legislation before you is an opportunity to strengthen non-profit and public delivery of child care. If we would like to avoid the spectacular policy disasters that have happened in other countries, we should strengthen the protections the the legislation proposes, while also ensuring it gives a clear definition of what early learning and child care services are, so nobody mistakes it as being the care of a child wherever the child is. Rather, we're speaking about licensed, regulated and quality services provided by child care professionals.