Thank you, Chair.
I'm very grateful to both witnesses. You've been extremely clear on a bunch of issues that we've already heard witness testimony on, that government spending in the form of tax credits doesn't necessarily actually create more child care spaces in which to spend that money. You've been really clear on the impact of unpaid care. You've provided tons of testimony that I know we're going to be able to draw on.
Ms. Doucet, just last week I was at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. A number of us on the committee were attending for Canada. Unpaid care was a huge part of the agenda. The solution of parental leave, “use it or lose it”, for the male half of the family was one of those innovative ideas. Iceland was bragging that 70% of Iceland's men are using their “use it or lose it” male parental leave, to make sure that those men get hooked into that child care side. It was really great to hear.
I'm going to try to ask two questions in my time.
One is for Ms. Ballantyne. Can you talk a bit more about the federal role? You flagged in one of your reports, “We are concerned that these negotiations will result in a federal government hand-over of money to the provinces and territories to merely bolster the current patchwork and inadequate approach to child care.”
I'm hoping that you can expand on that a bit and again just give us your encapsulated vision of that federal leadership on bringing the provinces together to have a truly universal system.