Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much for your presentation, Ms. Oliver. I would just like to tell you that I am quite aware of how difficult your job is. I worked for three years in a public health centre for the elderly as a social worker, and I had to manage the recall list of registered practical nurses. I can tell you what a puzzle that was and I also know about the precarious working conditions facing registered practical nurses working in public institutions in Quebec. It appears that these conditions are similar in Ontario. You have my full respect, and I think you are right to be fighting for better working conditions from your provincial government, because your problems do come under provincial jurisdiction. You want to be able to offer better services to people in institutions and to those who need your health care services.
I can try to explain this whole debate here about child care services—which I find quite surprising. What we see today—and you have a concrete example of that—is a collision between two different approaches. With the money it is paying the children, which, in my opinion, is more like a family allowance, the government is definitely helping families make ends meet, but it is in no way ensuring the economic security of women.
I have three children and they went to a child care facility. When I started sending them there, I was paying $200 a week, or 50% of what I was earning. When Quebec introduced $5-a-day child care, my economic capacity as a woman improved considerably. Under the program, I then paid $50 a week for my two children. So I had more money left to spend on their education, their clothing and their housing needs.
There is a certain lack of understanding between the government side and the parties on this side of the table. Day care centres in Quebec and elsewhere were established by women; not by the government, but rather by Quebec women who wanted to have access to the labour market to improve their economic security so that they would not have to depend on the father of their children in order to survive. That is a battle that women have waged, and I do not think that Mr. Harvey is aware of this fact.
Women established a network of child care centres, and the women working in them fought to improve their own wages, because they too were workers. We should emphasize that the Quebec child care network has not been in place that long as a public institution. We have a fine network that meets women's needs, allows them to improve their economic position and to join the labour market, and this is thanks in large part to the women of Quebec who fought to establish this network.
I worked in the area of health care in Quebec for 20 years, and when I hear people such as Mr. Harvey say that people should not feel negative impacts because of the reductions at Status of Women Canada, because the money has been invested in front-line services, I realize that for me, the expression "front-line services" means emergency food and other services, truly direct services. I think women need to learn to fight to express their rights, to speak out against abuse and to believe in their importance in society. Unfortunately, they still need support in all these areas.
I have just one question for you, Ms. O'Haire and Ms. Oliver. You have an opportunity to speak to the five Conservative members of Parliament. Speaking as women, and not as practical nurses or teachers, what demands would you like to make to the federal government, which is suppose to be listening to you? What type of measures would really allow women to improve their economic security?