Mr. Speaker, 12 years ago today the United Nations designated May 15 as the International Day of Families. This annual observance marks the importance of families to communities across the world and on this occasion I am proud to reiterate our government's support for young Canadian families and their diverse needs.
Our universal child care benefit will provide direct support of $1,200 per year to parents for each child under six. Our child care spaces initiative will create up to 25,000 new child care spaces per year starting in 2007. This is good news for all preschool aged children. It shows our commitment to supporting parents and their child care choices.
Canadian families are the cornerstone of this great nation. They deserve our support and our government is proud to deliver this to them, as they have asked us to do.