Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about the child care network, the new national child care program the federal government wants to set up. Several times, I have asked the minister quite simply how he intends to answer Quebec, which wants a national child care program that would fully respect provincial jurisdictions and the principle regarding the conditions that would relate to this system.
Quebec and the minister for employment, social solidarity and family welfare are asking that no conditions be attached to this new federal program.
Therefore, the answers provided by the minister have left us dumbfounded. Here is what he had to say in answer to questions put to him in the House. The social development minister told us it was too soon to talk about money, that the principles were still being examined and that a new meeting could be held in January where money issues would be addressed. He maintains that his meeting with his counterparts, the provincial social development ministers, in September was a huge success.
Why did the Quebec minister of employment, social solidarity and family welfare leave this meeting saying there was no agreement and that never in two weeks, two months or two years would he agree to the conditions? He said he did not want any strings attached to the money promised. I am talking about some $1.25 billion for Quebec over five years.
To set up a child care system in the rest of Canada it is $5 billion over five years. They know full well this is not a lot of money, but Quebec can possibly do more. We know that since 1998 Quebec has put $1.7 billion in its child care system.
We know they are trying to buy time. They know what Quebec wants and that is how they have operated since I arrived in this Parliament in 1993. I know how this government works. They say they have a program, that it will take time and that we will come to an agreement. However, in the end, it can take years before anything is signed or before any money goes into the provincial coffers.
A motion was passed unanimously in the National Assembly stating that we want money with no strings attached. The Parti Québécois, the Liberal party and the ADQ voted in favour of this motion.
The government is also saving $1 billion. The Government of Quebec covers $20 of the cost, and families pay $7 for using the child care service. Thus, there is $1 billion less in tax credits claimed by Quebec families that use the child care service in Quebec.
What is the federal government doing? It is keeping this $1 billion in its pockets rather than giving it back to the province that is being used as a model throughout the world. The OECD recently recognized it as such, which is why the federal government decided to implement its national child care program.