Mr. Speaker, residents of St. John's East and all of Newfoundland and Labrador are concerned about the high cost and availability of child care. Our province has the second-highest child care cost in the country.
In local media over the past week, parents told their stories about the serious consequences for their young families or for them as single parents trying to cope, be part of the workforce, or continue in education. Some couples pay more than their mortgage and sometimes half of their income to obtain child care.
We have a serious problem when families with two working parents say that they just cannot afford to have the family size that they want, or even have children at all.
Fortunately, help is on the way. The NDP has a practical plan for a national child care system, working with the provinces to deliver one million child care spaces over eight years, costing a maximum of $15 a day. According to the TD Bank, every dollar spent by government will return to the federal and provincial coffers, and more besides.
That is a plan that everyone should get behind. It is real progress for families.