Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much for being here this afternoon. I am a woman with a big heart, and I have listened very carefully to your comments. There are a couple of things that bother me.
Ms. Townson, a little earlier, you talked about women staying at home with their children for seven years and not being penalized by their retirement plan. You said that caregivers sometimes have to leave the labour market earlier to look after someone and that, unfortunately, the fact they have to stop working to care for another person is not taken into consideration. As a result, they are penalized.
Do you believe they should be given the same amount of time—in other words, seven years—when they care for someone, which would mean that they would not be penalized under the pension plan?
Also, you said that 82% of women aged 24 to 35 work outside the home. I come back to the concern expressed by Ms. Carbonneau, who talked about intergenerational fairness and the fact that the pension plan would be paying out 50% of income, rather than 25%.
Given that more people are working, do you think that the problems associated with intergenerational unfairness would iron themselves out fairly quickly? The reason I am somewhat bothered by this is that, when my mother began working outside the home, the Quebec Pension Plan did not exist. My mother is now 81 years of age and she is poor; but she raised six children. I think she deserves a decent income.
What would be a decent income, in your opinion?