Okay. I'll give you some dates for context.
On December 24, 2021, my husband and I, who live in Toronto, learned that we were expecting a child. On December 26, we put our future child on the waiting list of the two francophone child care centres in our neighbourhood. I couldn't have been any faster. Our son was born in September 2022, and I returned to work on July 1, 2023. However, my son only got a space in a francophone day care on July 1, 2024. So he was on the waiting list for that day care for over a year from the end of my maternity leave. During that year, to my great dismay, our family was among those where four out of five children did not have a space in a francophone day care. I thought I had done everything in my power to avoid such a situation. I was very desperate.
As part of your study, you heard a little earlier from other witnesses that, in Prince Edward Island, 150 francophone children are waiting for a space in the province's child care centres. In our neighbourhood, at least 150 children are in the same situation. I'm not trying to make it into a competition, but I just want to give you an idea of the scope of the demand that could be met if there were more spaces.