I’m delighted to welcome once again my constituents from Markham–Unionville, Jennifer Ng and Ernest Ng. They are the proud parents of page Victoria Ng. Joining them today is Victoria’s youngest brother, Matthew.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

The parents are saving $6,000 to $12,000 because of our government’s policy on child care. So the price they’ll pay is longer wait-lists, if we adhere to the advice of the NDP and Liberals, who want us to literally make the wait-lists longer by precluding one third of the sector from being involved in the federal deal.

That is your position. That is your stated recommendation to government: to preclude 70,000 spaces.

You’re asking me a question about access, when you have urged this government to sign the first deal—which would have denied every parent in a for-profit child care. These are operated by women, small businesses, who simply want access to affordable care too.

Why does the NDP oppose affordable child care for every parent in this province?

What we’ve also committed to is continuing to reduce child care fees. When we came to power in 2018, child care, on average, was $46 to $50 a day. It is $23 a day, and on track to go down even further over the next year and a half, delivered by our Premier and our Progressive Conservative team.

We are increasing the spaces in every region of Ontario—86,000 additional spaces are on track, 19,000 in Toronto alone.

We are committed to affordability, to standing up against higher taxes on working parents. From the carbon tax to higher fees—we stand for affordability in this province.