Sure. That's a really good question.
I am among those who have been speaking quite loudly about the need for a federal secretariat, in part because child care needs a home in order for the policy area to be executed and for us to reach the kinds of aspirations that many in this conversation have around the equity and the gender equality outcomes that a child care system can deliver.
You're absolutely right in your diagnosis that the last year has been devastating for the child care sector. We've seen centres close across the country for lots of reasons, including because child care is not really a system across Canada. It's rather sort of a patchwork market.
We know that, for example, education is going be there next year for our kids because education is a right of every child and a responsibility of every province and territory. Because child care is a market it enjoys no such protection, so we've seen in the pandemic that the sector itself has been really fragile.
There have been some investments. I'm thinking about the safe restart monies that went to a number of sectors in various provinces, including to child care. In my conversations with the child care sector, they reported that things like the wage subsidy, as with other small employers, have been really important in keeping them afloat, but those are going to end and this pandemic is going to continue.
If the stock of child care is not available and if we are coming out of the pandemic with less than we had going into it, we're putting ourselves in all of the kinds of disadvantages that have been well canvassed at this committee.