Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member how the efforts of the NDP in a minority government influenced the commitment in the 2004 Liberal platform for $5 billion in early learning and child care.

Business of Supply  No.

Business of Supply  No, Mr. Speaker. There has been no consultation. The answer is therefore no, absolutely not.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to explain the hon. member's misinformation on just about everything. That party brought down the government in November and as a result, there are no spaces available at Andrew Fleck this year. The member knows perfectly well that in 1993, when child care was in the red book, it was a cost sharing agreement.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is very important to recognize provincial jurisdictions. However, it is also very important in our opinion to recognize that all Canadian children must get the best possible start in life. We have tried to help Quebec achieve its objective of 200,000 spaces this year in licensed services, and I think that our federation would have benefited nation wide from the best of the Quebec model.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would invite him to go to the Andrew Fleck centre to which I referred. That program would have assisted children with autism. Many families have acknowledged they cannot do this at home 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is an extraordinarily difficult situation.

Business of Supply  moved: That the House recognize that an effective, Canada-wide early learning and child care system requires both continued vigorous effort to provide supports for family incomes and proactive intergovernmental activity to create a sufficient number of high quality, universally accessible, affordable and developmental child care spaces to meet the broad range of needs of Canadian children; that the House observe that the present government has made, in both these tasks, significantly less progress than its predecessor, which had provided income support programs for families with children totalling more than $10 billion per year and had negotiated child-care space-creating agreements with all provinces valued at at least an additional $1 billion per year; and, therefore, that the House urge the government to increase substantially its activities in this regard in order to provide Canadian families with the early learning and child care facilities that they need and deserve.

Child Care  Mr. Speaker, the minister knows perfectly well that the research shows that if we do not invest in early learning and childhood, for every dollar we spend in that we will save $7 later in special education, corrections and all those things, and you know that. Your answer was a short--

Child Care  Mr. Speaker, yesterday's budget confirmed what many Canadian families were afraid of. The NDP sold out to a government that has no plan to create new child care spaces. Out of nothing more than spite, the minister has cancelled agreements that were already creating new spaces and programs across this country.

Public Health Agency of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question. I think the agency really has almost three responsibilities related to infectious diseases, chronic diseases, as well as emergency preparedness. That it is always seen as a zero sum game. If we actually need to be moving forward on infectious diseases or pandemic preparedness, it is seen as though we might be taking resources from another area.

Public Health Agency of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his support. He would need to take out a Liberal membership and I look forward to that. In terms of the chronology, this was a very interesting project in terms of getting it from the order in council into an actual bill, but we are there now.

Public Health Agency of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, we knew that the bill was just the framework to establish the agency and to ensure that within the bill there would be the flexibility to go forward in terms of regulations. We would want the bill to go forward in a way that would be fair, transparent and would get the job done.

Public Health Agency of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise to talk about Bill C-5, an act respecting the establishment of the Public Health Agency of Canada and amending certain acts. The text of this bill is a carbon copy of Bill C-75, which was tabled in the House on November 16, 2005, by the former Liberal government.

Public Health Agency of Canada Act  Mr. Speaker, I remember SARS and I remember the response that we were able to give as a government in terms of appointing the first ever minister of state for public health and appointing Dr. David Butler-Jones as the Chief Public Health Officer for Canada. My question for the member concerns the response we have had over the past few months in terms of the insecurity that our first nations Inuit and Métis people are feeling in terms of their responsibility in preparing for a pandemic or a potential SARS outbreak on reserve.

Child Care  Mr. Speaker, that is a vague and incorrect answer. The Liberal government had set aside $100 million to improve early learning programs and child care on reserves. Since the Conservative government has no plan, will it honour the Liberal commitment and give aboriginal Canadians the services they need?