27. Draws attention to the fact that, despite the EU funding available, some Member States have made budget cuts that are affecting the availability, quality and costs of childcare services, with the subsequent negative impact on reconciling family and working life, which particularly affects women; calls on the Commission to monitor the attainment of the Barcelona objectives and to continue to support Member States in creating high- quality and affordable childcare with reasonable hours of attendance and to successively develop new targets in the field of childcare structures; emphasises in this connection the importance of increasing the availability, quality and accessibility of affordable nursing and care services for children, the el ...[+++]derly and persons requiring special care, including assistance to dependants and ensuring that the availability of such services is compatible with full-time working hours for both women and men; notes that more comprehensive day care and nursery facilities depend not only on the necessary public policies, but also on incentives to employers to offer such solutions;

27. Draws attention to the fact that, despite the EU funding available, some Member States have made budget cuts that are affecting the availability, quality and costs of childcare services, with the subsequent negative impact on reconciling family and working life, which particularly affects women; calls on the Commission to monitor the attainment of the Barcelona objectives and to continue to support Member States in creating high- quality and affordable childcare with reasonable hours of attendance and to successively develop new targets in the field of childcare structures; emphasises in this connection the importance of increasing the availability, quality and accessibility of affordable nursing and care services for children, the el ...[+++]derly and persons requiring special care, including assistance to dependants and ensuring that the availability of such services is compatible with full-time working hours for both women and men; notes that more comprehensive day care and nursery facilities depend not only on the necessary public policies, but also on incentives to employers to offer such solutions;

12. Calls on the Commission to present proposals to create the conditions for families with children to make use of their right to mobility by setting binding minimum targets for availability of childcare and for care leave, such as paternity leave; calls on Member States to integrate children of workers making use of the right to mobility into their education system;

It really does depend on the type of space you're creating—if you're creating spaces for infants, which are more costly, versus for older kids—and it absolutely depends on the region and the market in which you're building your space.

Question No. 100 Ms. Olivia Chow: With regard to the government's plans for child care: (a) how many spaces will be created by the end of March 2007 from the $650 million that was transfered to the provinces and territories to create child care spaces; (b) what kind of phase-out plan will be implemented to deal with the loss of those funds on April 1, 2007; (c) what is the timeline for launching the $250 million child care spaces initiative; and (d) how many child care spaces will be created from the $1.6 billion universal child care benefit?

Given that 250 first nations currently do not have regulated child care and that first nations were not adequately consulted during the child care spaces initiative regional consultations, what is the next step for the minister's department in terms of working with first nations to work toward the creation of child care spaces for first nations?