Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Lahey, I have not been sitting on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women for very long, that is to say for a little less than one year.
I therefore did not take part in the drafting of a number of reports that have been prepared. Earlier you surprised me when you said that Canada was a pioneer in gender-based analysis and that it had even exported its discoveries in this field. You also said that the UN used it for its own bases.
In your view, what happened between the time when we were leaders, when we moved forward with analyses, studies and policy choices that favour this type of study and policy, and the time when we slipped to eighteenth in the world? What do you think happened? What happened between that time and the time when CIDA drew from our studies and research?
Consequently, since so much work was done in advance... People seem very concerned by the amount of work that we will have to do to ensure that this study is properly done. Since so many things have already been done, couldn't we take advantage of that and start off on a solid footing? I think your idea of focusing on income splitting is excellent. I think that will probably be part of our talks.
Would it be important to be able to use what has already been done in order to continue and not reinvent the wheel?