In terms of recommendations, we have three.
The first recommendation relates to making maternity and parental leaves more accessible and better funded. In terms of the arguments in favour of parental leave policies, they present two rationales: first, that such policies are now a necessity, giving the increasing numbers of women who participate in the labour market; and second, that there are benefits, both health and well-being benefits, that flow from allowing new parents an opportunity to spend time with their children during those first years of life.
Unfortunately, based on the current policies, there are individuals, groups, and families who do not have access to maternity and parental leaves. If we summarize those groups, it's single, younger, and less-educated women who are much less likely to be eligible for maternity benefits than other groups. This primarily relates to the structure of the EI program, which means that, at present, seasonal workers and those women who are self-employed are ineligible for maternity benefits. Second, when we look at the length of the leave women take, primarily it's women in vulnerable circumstances, younger women, and those facing financial hardships who take shorter leave.
Our recommendation to you today, first, is that you extend the maternity and parental leave benefits program to include those working Canadians who do seasonal work or part-time work and those who are self-employed, and, secondly, that you look to enrich the value of the benefit to those lower-income families.
The second recommendation relates to income support for families and refers to some of the information that Mr. Kolkman presented. It remains a disturbing fact that children and their families continue to live in poverty in Canada. Child poverty has a high price that we all pay. Children who grow up in low-income families do less well in school, they earn lower incomes, and they have higher levels of use of social, health, and justice services.
One fiscal vehicle the federal government has to reduce child and family poverty is the Canada child tax benefit. We encourage you to enhance that child tax benefit to ensure it targets low- and modest-income families, and our recommendation is that you do that by eliminating the universal child tax benefit and the non-refundable child tax credit and flowing those moneys into an enhanced child tax benefit. As Mr. Kolkman points out, that would immediately elevate 50,000 families above the low-income level.
Finally, we commend the Government of Canada for your recent investments in infrastructure. Those investments in infrastructure need to be added to by investments in social infrastructure. There is a large body of evidence that supports the value of early childhood education and care as a vital social infrastructure that supports families and their children.
Public investments in early childhood education and care support the healthy development of children, they enable parents to participate in the labour force, and they create community jobs. We therefore recommend that the government re-establish the funding transfers outlined in the 2005 early learning and child care agreement.
Thank you.