My next question is for Professor Lahey. I think you have spoken about this.
Under the current government expenditures, taxpayers who support a spouse or a common-law partner are entitled to a tax credit. The cost of this tax credit is about $1.3 billion annually and is projected to increase.
In 1942, interestingly enough, during the Second World War, Canada repealed this in order to get women into the job market to help in the war effort. Of course, once the war had ended, the tax credit went back on, to ostensibly get women back into the home and free up those jobs for returning soldiers.
Other countries have abandoned this tax credit, but in 2007 the Canadian government actually increased it. I'm wondering whom the tax benefit impacts most and whether we would be wise to invest that $1.3 billion elsewhere.