That's a really easy question. I'll answer it on two levels, I think.
Starting with the Quebec experience, I think it's really interesting; they have looked at putting the infrastructure in place first. They focused not on specific, one-by-one policy areas but on the mechanisms and the things that will make it run. So they have a law that requires certain things to be done. They're going to have indicators so they know exactly what they're measuring. They know when they're achieving results or not, and therefore know how to plan better. They've created this consultative committee and a research body so that they know they have the information they need. They have a mechanism to consult with the people who are going to be affected.
Those are major pieces in place, and I think you have to look in a comprehensive way at your own situation.
With regard to child care, for Quebec in particular they're well advanced compared to the rest of the country in that, but they're looking at other areas of family policy. They're looking at starting to increase welfare rates. Newfoundland is looking at similar kinds of things.
In terms of the role of the federal government, again, I don't want to speak for other organizations, but there are a lot of examples of things out there. The group that I referred to before, this coalition that produced the report, is Ontario-based, but it has a lot of applicability to the rest of Canada. It's called MISWAA, or Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults. They've made a series of recommendations for different things.
I believe the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recently put out a paper calling for a much more expanded federal role in social assistance so that the federal government would have a more comprehensive role in income security generally, given that it already has employment insurance, the pension plan, and those sort of things. If they had a greater role in social assistance, things would work a little more seamlessly.
That's something we hear constantly from people living in poverty, that this gap between EI and social assistance puts people in horrendous binds. It's hugely problematic. There are so many cracks. I mean, when you fall between those two programs, you fall through more than a crack; it's more like the Grand Canyon.