Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaking to this amendment, it's obviously a subject that hopefully no family experiences, but unfortunately some do. With regard to the amendment itself, currently mothers do have access to 17 weeks of leave. That's under current legislation. The impact of this amendment would be, yes, to bring in the fact that both parents, however defined, would receive or be eligible for 12 weeks of leave. We talk about the unintended consequences of legislation. The unintended consequence of this legislation could potentially be that the 17 weeks mothers currently receive could then be actually limited to, or brought down to, 12 weeks because of the amendment. We would not want that to happen in any way if in the circumstances a family faced that situation.
The second issue is that the content of the motion that has been brought forth, which is a very worthy thing to study and consider judiciously, is currently in front of the HUMA committee. They are studying it. Frankly, although each committee is the master of their own domain, we should let the committee continue to do that work and obviously consider where they come out when the report is finally completed. We should let the committee continue to do its work judiciously, much like any other committee would.
Those are my two cents, Mr. Chair.