Madam Chair, the parliamentary secretary's question was very well-informed. I think it will surprise no one in this House that I agree with him very strongly.
For more than 50 years, since the Royal Commission on the Status of Women urgently urged the Canadian government to set about building a universal system of early learning and child care, early learning and child care has been a feminist cause across Canada. What I believe is different today is that there is a wide appreciation in our country, and indeed around the world, that a system of early learning and child care is also an essential economic strategy for driving growth.
In fact, today we are lucky to have the deputy minister of finance, Michael Sabia, with us. Deputy Minister Sabia and his team have calculated that, once we build a universal system of early learning and child care across Canada, that will drive economic growth more powerfully than any policy Canada has implemented since NAFTA, and it will increase growth by more than 1.2%.
In closing, I would like to once again salute the women and feminists of Quebec, who have shown the rest of Canada what can and must be done.