Thank you, MP Zahid, for your very important work as chair of immigration and citizenship.
One of your witnesses, Armine Yalnizyan, said that there will be no she-covery without early learning and child care. She is absolutely right.
The Prime Minister very clearly referred to it in the Speech from the Throne and ensured that it was recognized as one of the key ways of moving women and our economy forward. The alternative is to roll back the clock decades and decades.
Early learning and child care are one of the 167 recommendations that came from the Royal Commission on the Status of Women's report. This piece around paid and unpaid work, and the care work traditionally done by women which is just expected to be done for free has held our economy together. I think what COVID has allowed us to see is just how much care is core to who we are and to our economy.
Minister Hussen is working diligently to develop the framework that we hope will have buy-in from our colleagues in provinces and territories.