Thank you, Madam Chair.
I thank all of you. It was an excellent presentation. It was actually terrific. We've heard a great many fantastic presentations here in the last few weeks.
I have to tell you that when we embarked on this, I had worked with women's issues for many years, so I had a sense of what I thought we would find. And I guess my...not disappointment, but distress comes from the fact that not only did we find a lot more than I thought we would, but also the fact that a lot less has changed than I thought had, especially in some parts. Maybe that's more the situation. I suppose I should know that from looking around our own Parliament, in terms of the number of women who are here and elsewhere. That should tell us a great deal.
Both Ms. Martz and Ms. Purdon have spoken eloquently with respect to rural women's issues--isolation and major problems. One of the things that was said was that a national child care program should be targeted and designed and situated, obviously, to meet the needs of rural women, specifically with the rural and space lens being put on it, which is a given to me. Of course, the delivery of that national program would be provincial. But there should be that kind of consultation because of shift work and all kinds of other situations. That's one issue.
The other issues are--well, there are many--transportation and access to education for women so they can upgrade themselves and as a result get better jobs, hopefully, or even get to the jobs, if there is good child care.
So it seems to me, from what you've said, that all of it is obviously fundamentally important. And there's no question about economic security and guaranteed income for women on the farm and possibly a pension of some kind, especially for those women who continue to work and contribute to the farm but have no other way of paying into an actual pension.
Then of course there's the issue.... When I say education, I also mean access to long-distance education. So it seems to me that the issue of accessing government social infrastructure.... And the women's regional program offices were closed, I think. I'll ask you if you could comment on what impact that has had on the ability of women in rural counties to even access that bit of programming.
It seems to me, from what you've said, that the social infrastructure of rural Canada--that is, being able to access social programs or government offices to access the programs--and education, transportation, and child care, while not the only supports, are probably the most basic supports we could think of in the short term, almost immediately.
Am I wrong here? I'm not trying to say that the other issues are not important. I'm just trying to look at a basket that one could say would get us started. Would that be a reasonable basket?