I'll take the question. Unfortunately my colleague's headset mike is not working.
The research you describe has been led by newcomer and racialized women. One of the key themes that emerged from that research, which I'm sure will not be a surprise to anybody on this call, is that a lack of affordable and accessible child care is one of the key barriers to labour market access for newcomer, racialized and Black-identified women.
We've been looking very closely, as a result, at recommendations from a Quebec economist, Pierre Fortin. When he looked at investment in Quebec, for example, after 10 or 15 years he found that for every $100 the Quebec government invested in universal affordable child care, not only did tax revenue increase, but both the federal and provincial governments received over $140 back in taxes. They also saw workforce participation rates increase.
What we're hearing from our service users on the ground is that we need different models for supporting affordable child care right across the country. Many newcomer women work in the child care sector, but because of the way the subsidies are structured, the pay for early childhood educators is so low that many newcomer and racialized women who work as early childhood educators are actually leaving the sector altogether. The pay is not worth it, and the health and safety risks with COVID are simply not worth it.
YWCA recently did a survey—