If you agreed with the principle that the person at home is doing useful work, there are a number of ways.... You could increase the spousal deduction to full personal, as we do in Alberta already. You could have a household-based tax, instead of an individual-based tax, allowing income splitting, as they do in France or as they do in the United States. That's a possible option. You could make the universal child benefit, which you guys have to the age of six, go to the age of fourteen or sixteen, and be a more significant amount. Dr. Pierre Lefebvre of the University of Quebec suggests $5,000 per child. The money flows with the child; the people can purchase day care or nanny care with it, or subsidize their costs at home. The maternity benefits would have to flow with the fact of maternity, not with paid employment status.
There are a number of mechanisms.