Madam Speaker, the question of the member which has come back a couple of times indicates to me that this member does not really understand the federal-provincial arrangements through which this country is governed co-operatively by both levels of government.
The member said that if the government had the will it could implement a national child care program right now. That is simply and purely incorrect. The federal government could not implement such a program because caring for children is part of the responsibility of the provinces. We simply could not do it without provincial co-operation.
She also asked what happened to the 150,000 child care spaces that were promised in the 1993 red book. We fulfilled that promise when we came forward with an offer to set aside $400 million and asked the provinces to come forward and use that money to build child care spaces.