Thank you, Chair.
Thanks to all three witnesses. We are going to get lots of material from your testimony already. I will try to ask three questions in my seven minutes.
The first, I think, is for the steelworkers more than anything. I want to say thank you for your union's work on leave provisions for victims of domestic violence. You've been able to negotiate that into a couple of contracts, and it's starting to affect provincial legislation—up to four weeks of paid leave for domestic violence, and up to five months of unpaid leave, although I understand that, on average, women are only taking something like three days to get their lives back in order. In any case, they don't need to lose their jobs because they have been victims of domestic violence at home.
We've been hearing at this panel that the cost to the Canadian economy is tremendous, $12 billion. Given that, I was disappointed that the federal budget two weeks ago included spending only within the federal government—$20 million a year, as opposed to the $500 million to fund a domestic violence national action plan that NGOs were asking for.
Can you talk a little about how the government could take the leadership to make it a standard that women experiencing violence can take the time they need to get to safety and rebuild their lives?