Status of Women committee  I have done some work on that, which I would be happy to pass on to the committee. My major concern about tax expenditures is that the form in which they're delivered often excludes women because so many of them are low income or no income. If you're not paying income tax, if your income is below that threshold, you cannot access most of the tax expenditures in the system.

Status of Women committee  I must apologize. My French is not good enough to fully understand your question or to respond in French. Is there anyone who could translate for me?

Status of Women committee  I don't believe I have an earphone for translation. I apologize.

Status of Women committee  Yes, I did understand the question posed in English. My answer would be that the Department of Finance needs to incorporate a gender analysis and to explain to the public how it has done that and where. It hasn't been able to. It needs to reveal that. We need to know that the Department of Finance, who are the tax policy experts in the country, are taking this into account, and they need to discuss that with Parliament, with parliamentary committees, with the public, and take that on.

Status of Women committee  I think one would never want to advocate it as a measure to help the poorest seniors, because it will leave them out. However, it is true that currently we do allow people to split their CPP, for instance, with a spouse, and we allow that to be reflected in a lower tax burden for the person who shares his or her pension.

Status of Women committee  I'm afraid I can't answer with a precise number off the top of my head. However, I can tell you that England has moved increasingly to do it. It started with an external group, but the government is increasingly internalizing it. The U.S. does not do very much of this, to the best of my knowledge.

Status of Women committee  I think you're absolutely right, and this really goes to what I said about external involvement. There have to be civil society agencies that will create expectations, insist upon gender analysis, and provide independent analysis to review what the government does in order for the government exercise to happen in the first place and then to be effective.

Status of Women committee  Excellent. Thank you, Madam Chair and honourable members. I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak to you today. It's a real privilege to address you. I understand you're considering, as a committee, doing a study on gender budgeting. I'm going to limit my comments to 10 minutes, as I've been requested to do.