Given that it affects half the population, as you know, this is an important part of what governments do, and it's certainly not anything new that the federal government does gender analysis. I think what's new is that it has moved from the departmental level up into the public budget documents, which I think is a positive analysis, and it can highlight for us important ways that we can increase economic growth, potentially at relatively low cost.
As we were saying to an earlier question, the corollary to reduced child care fees, which is increased labour force participation, was one of the original reasons that Quebec reduced fees in that province. It began that process in the 1990s, and went from having one of the lowest female labour force participation rates to having one of the highest, above the Canadian average, In large part that's due to the fact that there are more spaces and those spaces are more affordable, and that allows women to work.
If that same approach were taken across the country, and not just in Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba, where fees are set, there would be potentially substantial economic gains by helping families, and in particular, giving women who want to work the means to work, to raise their family incomes and spend that money back into the economy.
That's one example, but there are various other examples. EI is a good one, with the normalization of paternity leave. Through the “use it or lose it” paternal component, I think it will in the long run likely reduce the disparity between women and men who take time off for children—hopefully. It's a limited circumstance at this point, but I think it's an important step forward.