Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Minister for being here. I know your heart is in this work. I appreciate the budget naming the problems of gender equality, but I am so sorry that the concomitant action isn't there. We don't see funding for pay equity legislation and implementation. We had the grassroots alternative budget requesting that investment be made in a national action plan to end violence against women and that this investment be proportionate to the cost and consequence of gender-based violence.
Its recommendation was that there be $500 million a year and that there be uniform access to domestic violence support and prevention, courts, sexual assault crisis centres, and all of that, and instead we ended up with only $100 million over five years. We know that the cost of domestic violence is $12 billion. I know we're going to get a chance to talk about this more, but I just need to say I wish there were more oomph. We've been hearing a lot, in the context of the study this committee is doing on economic justice for women, about the benefits of a good child care system.
We heard this every day last week at the United Nations, where I was very glad to be part of your delegation. Every expert here has been saying that if we invest in getting a strong child care system, then more women who want to work will be able to. On Tuesday, Professor Pierre Fortin said that Quebec's child care model generated $900 million in revenue just by virtue of mothers getting to work. But in this budget, there's not a penny of funding for child care for this coming budget year. The budget increases funding by only $5 million between 2019 and 2020, and then there's no increase in 2021 and 2022.
We had the child care advocacy association of B.C. say that they thought a budget commitment of $7 billion over 10 years is far below what's required to develop a system. The CCPA budget called for 1% of GDP. This is apparently an international measure. They called for $600 million this year and then $1 billion more every year in the future until that 1% threshold is met.
Can you talk with me about why the budget isn't on track to meet the 1% of GDP being spent on child care, which is the new standard for developed countries?