Mr. Chairman, over the last few years, we have had a number of concerns raised with the department by clients of the day care subsidy program, as well as by day care operators. They raised issues with us primarily regarding timeliness of payments, but they had a number of suggestions for other parts of our guidelines that could be improved to streamline our program and make it more effective.
We have taken that advice and are making a number of adjustments to the policies and procedures. We are in the process of implementing them now. They include specific elements with respect to processing of payments. We have cleaned that up. We do not believe there is quite the same blockage as there was previously. Secondly, we have cleaned up some of the areas where there was particular contention, such as areas around determining how the subsidies were paid during holiday periods.
Generally speaking, I think the guideline changes have been very well received, judging from the comments we have had during the drafting process. It has been a process, Mr. Chairman, for some issues that have been underway for several years. Thank you.