Mr. Speaker, to truly understand early childhood development issues, perhaps one has to have children. I myself have an 11-month-old daughter. As a member of Parliament, I receive a very good salary, but we have to put ourselves in the shoes of parents who earn an average salary. Often, to provide their families with a reasonable quality of life, both parents nowadays have to work. This enables them to own more than one car and to afford certain luxuries from time to time. However, when both parents work, child care can be problematic. The plan to offer parents $1,200 a year is one thing.
But the annual cost of a day care space in New Brunswick is $12,000 of a family's net revenue. That means that the first $12,000 dollars a family earns goes to pay for day care.
If we really want to offer parents a logical choice, should we not keep the existing program, improve it, and strengthen day care centres? We could offer parents a lump sum of $1,200, thereby giving them more choice. That would be better than giving them $3.50 a day. Since both parents have to work, that does not seem to me to be a real choice.