Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses who have the courage to state their point of view.
However, you'll understand that, as a member of Parliament from Quebec, I can't agree with everything said today. Any of the witnesses can answer my questions.
I'll start with my point of view. It should be noted that Quebec chose to establish a child care service. Quebec wanted to implement many more social democratic measures and to take care of its people. I think that this characteristic is unique to Quebec and that we stand out from the other Canadian provinces. In Quebec, we clearly made this choice.
I gathered the following information on Pierre Fortin. I'm very familiar with him since I'm from Quebec and I've read several of his studies, especially his economic studies. He worked very hard to show the positive impact of a child care system. I'll share a few figures with you, since the study is only a few years old. The study states as follows:
Quebec simultaneously stood out in terms of the development of the women's participation rate. In 1996, the participation rate for mothers in Quebec was four points lower than the rate for mothers in other provinces. Since then, the rate has increased much faster than elsewhere. By 2011, it exceeded the Canadian average. The increase in women's employment in Quebec particularly affected mothers with children under the age of 15 and single parents.
Women who were single parents and who wouldn't have been able to break out of the vicious cycle of poverty managed to do so as a result of the child care system.
The study goes on to state as follows:
Our review of the studies published to date on the issue led us to estimate that, in 2008, approximately 70,000 mothers were working specifically as a result of Quebec's reduced-contribution child care program. We estimated that this influx of employed women led to an increase of about $5.1 billion in Quebec's domestic income, or GDP, in that year.
This isn't negligible. However, I want to hear your views. Clearly, we made this choice in Quebec. The provinces of Canada can decide what they want to do. However, we want the right to opt out with full compensation in order to comply with this model, which even draws the envy of the international community.