Mr. Speaker, the letter selected in the La Presse of March 18, 2001 as letter of the week was one written by Marie-France Pilon of Outremont, Quebec, which appeared under the heading “A salary for mothers: why not?”
Part of her letter to the Government of Quebec read as follows:
Women's situation would be greatly improved by making it possible to have a choice between working outside the home and parenting one's children at home, at least for the first three years.
We have “evolved” from housewives, who had no choice about their situation, to working women, who also have no choice, even when their children are at the age when they most need their mothers.
A salary for stay-at-home parents? Most emphatically yes, at least for the child's first three years of life. Is the Department of the Family in favour of families, or is it not? Let it learn more about what is being done in Germany, and implement it here.
This would be beneficial to couples and to families, and real values would win out, at least to some extent, over materialism.
Thank you, Marie-France Pilon.