Human Resources committee  It was actually Ms. Prentice who spoke to that. I'll give the floor to her.

Human Resources committee  I certainly would. I agree with Susan that it doesn't have to be explicit on how we're going to do it, but it should be very clear on the importance of the workforce and that the working conditions and compensation are paramount, really.

Human Resources committee  Again, I would say absolutely. In Ontario, we were given an $18-an-hour floor. What that did to our workforce was awful. They felt defeated. They felt that this was really important work, and they were not being compensated. In a strategy such as you've suggested, I would like to see a floor of $30 an hour, but $25 an hour would certainly be a big improvement on that.

Human Resources committee  When you think of a program that may have possibly 100 spaces, or less than 100 spaces, and it has 300 to 400 people—some have 600 people—on the wait-list, yes, that's probably pretty accurate.

Human Resources committee  It's not the experience of every program. It is an experience, because we do pay a lot of attention to quality and to family engagement. The reputation gets out there.

Human Resources committee  I think that Susan has done a great job of summarizing, and I don't want to muddy the waters. Focusing on the way she has put it is fine.

Human Resources committee  If I may just add, a workforce strategy would be important, along with something about the expansion, but certainly I'm supporting the comments that Susan has made.

Human Resources committee  We have about 300 in each of our programs.

Human Resources committee  We have 40 different licensed centres, and there are about 300. Some of those may overlap, because some centres are close to each other. However, it's a lot.

Human Resources committee  I see this as a process. We're at the beginning, and the first part is to make it affordable for families. It's certainly doing that. The unfortunate circumstance of that is that it increases wait-lists greatly. We also need, at the same time, a strategy to increase that access and offer expansion.

Human Resources committee  That's okay. It's not a problem

Human Resources committee  I see the bill as a good beginning. The amendments would certainly help, but I don't think we need to go for perfect before we can move forward. This bill will enshrine child care as a right for Canadians. That is such an important step for us to get beyond. Then, we can start to work on how we do that.

Human Resources committee  Very good. Yes. Thank you so much. We will need high-quality programs built on documents such as Ontario's “How Does Learning Happen?”, the B.C. and New Brunswick early learning frameworks and research to study programs that are already deeply embedded in quality. We have excellent programs across Canada.

Human Resources committee  Okay. Thank you.

Human Resources committee  Very good. Thank you.