Mr. Speaker, the question is this: does the universal child care benefit actually provide a choice? Has the benefit helped more parents stay at home? The government cannot answer that. Has it affected the severe shortage of child care? The government cannot answer that. Has it made child care more available? The government cannot answer that. The government cannot answer those fundamental questions.
Had that $17.5 billion actually gone to child care, we would have had 700,000 additional child care spaces in this country.