Mr. Speaker, for a feminist budget, a gender budget, the budget was sorely lacking in funding for new child care spaces. The International Monetary Fund, the Conference Board of Canada, and the Governor of the Bank of Canada all say that universal, affordable child care as a publicly-funded program will get women to work and will largely pay for itself, as it has in Quebec.
I am concerned that the government's budget, although it has the label of a gender budget and names women many times, has not funded new child care spaces yet in its term. It has had two and a half years to do so, and there was no new funding in this budget to create new child care spaces for women who want to go to work can take their children. It is deeply unaffordable and costs more than rent in some communities.
Could the member please explain why there were no dollars allocated in this budget for this fundamental program for working women?