Mr. Speaker, I share the concerns of the hon. member for Mississauga South, which have prompted his Motion No. 30. This motion proposes an amendment to the Income Tax Act to provide a caregiver tax credit for those who provide care in the home for preschool children, the disabled, the chronically ill or the aged.
You are, no doubt, aware that women generally invest more time than men in the care and nurturing of children, and this, for many of them, results in increased difficulty in entering the work force and in reduced earnings. During their lifetimes as well, they generally devote more time than men to the care of dependent members of their extended families, the sick, the disabled, or the elderly.
According to Nancy Guberman, in Actes du colloque , the proceedings of a symposium held in Montreal on May 5, 1995, women are responsible for 85 per cent of the assistance provided within families. According to Canadian Social Trends , in 1992 virtually all of the 3.4 million people whose principal activity was caring for the family home were women.
An examination of these statistics clearly shows that the measures in Motion No. 30 would, for the most part, affect Canadian and Quebec women. It is therefore important to compare the demands being made by those most concerned by this with the objectives of the motion we are addressing at this time. But serious attention must also be given in particular to the means which will be used to achieve those goals.
The aim of the motion proposed by the member for Mississauga South is to recognize the child-rearing done by the parent at home. We entirely agree with the member regarding the need for society
to recognize the considerable value of unpaid work performed by women at home, on the farm or elsewhere, whether it be housework, the care and nurturing of children or providing care to the aged.
People who work at home are extremely resentful of the lack of understanding and social respect from which they still suffer today. Changes are therefore necessary in order to attach more value to unpaid work and to the social role that those people play. This is what Motion No. 30 proposes. This why we support the motion of the member for Mississauga South, which responds with good intentions to the legitimate claims of those people.
But, in order to achieve these goals, the government must be guided by two key principles: the search for equity or social justice and the search for an efficient allocation of resources.
We support this motion, although we still have some concerns about its implementation and implications.
It would be unacceptable, for instance, if this motion were to send women back to their kitchens, that is to say encourage them to stay home and discourage those who are working outside the home.
It is important to support women's legitimate aspiration to full participation to society, whatever their place of work.
Women are free to choose to stay home to take care of someone in their immediate family, but they are also have a fundamental right to work. We must recognize that being away from a paid job has long-term consequences, because women who leave the workforce not only have to do without the income but, upon returning to work, they will never earn as much as they would have if they had not left.
Motion M-30 would help make up for this loss of income. In most cases, women work outside the home because they are single mothers, have to supplement their partner's income or because they want to contribute to society the knowledge and skills they have. It is important to support those who work at home, but it is equally important to support women who are in an occupational setting or would like to be.
Our second concern has to do with the adverse effects the changes proposed in Motion M-30 could have if they are not implemented with care. Yes, we should help women working in the home, but it is important to watch out for a tax system that would introduce further inequality and exclusion. We must categorically oppose a system that seeks to realize savings by eliminating jobs, and reducing the demand for daycare places and services. Such a system would be a disincentive to jobs and training, and would limit women to the status of part-time workers or make them dependent on their spouse or the government.
Today, and there are a number of reasons for this, the care and raising of children no longer usually require the full-time presence of the mother in the home for the greater part of her working life. We tend to have fewer children, and our children leave home for school at an early age. The phenomena of separation and divorce, and the increase in single parenthood, have also meant that a woman's ability to earn her living has become the best guarantee of economic security for women and children. But let us never forget that this ability is strongly dependent on academic training and work experience and whether women have sufficiently remunerative work.
Motion M-30 is rooted in a good intention, in wishing to provide a tax credit for those looking after relatives at home. It is a way of promoting the equality and autonomy of these women. But let us take care that measures such as those proposed in M-30 do not lose sight of the fact that women are people in their own right and not dependents of a spouse, or people whose identity is lost in that of the family.
My third reservation concerns the beneficiaries of the assistance proposed in Motion M-30. Such measures must, of necessity, be directed towards individuals working in the home. In the demographic and economic context we are now facing, the tax system and transfer payments must support the movement of women towards economic autonomy, by encouraging them to take training, to acquire relevant work experience and to develop their knowledge and know-how on a life long basis. We must be wary of fixating on measures that force individuals to maintain family solidarity, and remember the importance of basing the tax system on individuals first and foremost. The work of a person providing care in the home for children, the chronically ill, the disabled or the aged must be recognized independently of family income.
Any measures likely to slow down women's participation in the labour market and to increase their economic dependency on their spouse or on the government risk having a high social cost over the long term.
Motion No. 30, I repeat, should not be used as an excuse for confining women to home nor as a justification for removing government commitment, which could reduce the benefits already enjoyed by certain categories of people such as seniors or handicapped people.
It should not be used either to make savings on the backs of workers who could lose their jobs because of a decrease in the demand for services. This is no way to create jobs.
Finally, the Bloc Quebecois reiterates its comments on how important it is for Quebec to give itself a comprehensive family policy, something it cannot do right now within the federal system. Indeed, the existence of two levels of government in many areas affecting women's life is cause for overlapping and duplication of programs and structures and, as a result, a waste of taxpayer money.
As for me, I think the interest of Quebec women would be best served if there were only one decision maker and only one provider of funds. For Quebec, it would mean that it would be possible to give itself a consistent and comprehensive policy dealing with the status of woman and the family.
We are convinced that only sovereignty for Quebec will allow us to reach these goals.