Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women. At first, I admit that I was eager to hear her, because she said "we have adopted a series of concrete measures" and I thought that this morning we would find out some wonderful things that we did not yet know.
Now I must admit that it was just a list of good intentions. It is a statement of principles that may possibly be good for the status of women, but there is very little specific in it. I will give some examples. When she talks about infrastructure, the Secretary of State wants women to present projects related to environmental safety, as well as projects that could increase the number of day care spaces. But having seen the infrastructure projects that will be put forward in my area, we know very well that the projects she is talking about will have lower priority, so there is little hope for them.
She also mentioned that women earn only 72 cents for every dollar men earn. I do not doubt it. What we would be entitled to expect is specific legislation and measures requiring businesses to correct that situation, but basically, we have nothing concrete there either.
I want banks to be more sensitive to small business from now on, but that is still part of projects that have yielded nothing so far.
She concludes by saying that we will create day-care spaces when the debt is no more than 3 per cent of gross domestic product, so parents who need child care will still have to wait and the government will not grant their request any time soon.