Thank you, Madam Chair.
This is in light of the concerns and the discussion we've heard across the country over the summer, and the fact that whenever we have a study here and we ask Stats Canada for information--we want to drill deeper--the response is always “Well, we can't provide that, we've had cutbacks; there is no collection of that data”. It has impeded our work. While this committee does exemplary work, I think that with better information, stronger statistics, we could complement what we've done and be even more forceful in terms of what we are able to recommend to government.
By virtue of the fact that we've heard from a number of agencies, organizations...government saying how desperately they need this information in order to plan, I think a study here is imperative as soon as we can manage it. Because the government is making decisions that are clearly not benefiting women and families in this country, but most certainly women, I would like to proceed with this.