You've seen the same headlines as I have. Without pay equity, without your feminist budget funding pay equity and universal child care, you really can't call it a gender budget. Those are words, not action or implementation.
We have quotes from Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, and Child Care Now, Morna Ballantyne particularly, who are both saying that a gender equality budget without child care is not a gender equal budget. Morna Ballantyne says that “Without universal child care, women's equality will never become a reality in Canada.” The Childcare Resource and Research Unit; the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women; Kathleen Lahey, a Queen's professor; and Armine Yalnizyan from CCPA all say that they are astonished that a government that's willing to spend and says it's a feminist government, that says it's going to invest in social infrastructure....
Here we are. It looks like the government is ragging the puck on feminism by spending so late in the term that you're not going to be able to realize any of the advantages for women. Women are far behind, as you said in your introduction and acknowledged in your speech.
Can you help me understand the misalignment here between words and action?