Good. In my opinion, this initiative does not really give more choice to parents, if there are no subsidized child care spaces available.
I will go on by addressing Mr. McNaney about West Jet. I am a former engineer. I have worked for Motorola and I have also benefited greatly from a similar employee program there. I felt it was very good and I encourage big corporations to do the same thing. However, I have some reservations about your proposal, specifically the part under which the employer's contribution would eventually be considered as a capital gain.
In my opinion, when you pay employees, whether in the form of a salary or with shares, it is a taxable benefit and it should be taxed as such. I agree with you: the fact employees are immediately taxed can limit their disposable income but at the same time, being able to buy shares at half price, for all practical purposes, is a benefit. If I buy two shares and I pay only for one, it means that I have paid half price for them.
It would be somewhat surprising for the government to agree to subsidize or fund this benefit by treating it as a capital gain—taxable at half its value if my memory serves me well—when a lot of people who work for non-publicly held companies would not have access to such a plan.
What do you respond to that?