Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada has been providing maternity benefits to Canadians for more than 30 years and parental benefits for the last decade. The initiative builds on a very longstanding foundation. The extension of maternity and parental benefits has been provided to Canadians at no additional cost. In fact for the last seven years premiums have gone down under the government.
Currently there are employers and provincial governments that provide some top ups, and the province of Quebec is perfectly at liberty to do that, building upon the very sound foundation that the Canadian system provides.