Mr. Speaker, we did start in the year 2000 with $2.2 billion on the table. At that time the provinces would not agree to any solution except to allow them to cherry-pick and choose which programs for children they would use. In my province of Ontario there is a program called the early years program.
I agree that we should never have backed off. We should have insisted that the $2.2 billion stay as child care money. We did try in 2000. We tried again in 2004 and did get an agreement. If it was not for the NDP bringing down the government, instead of allowing that program to take root, it would not have happened. The election could have waited a couple of months. We did have an agreement with the provinces. A national program was in place, but the Conservative government chose to cancel it.