Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for the question. As well, she has been very generous in providing French lessons since I have been here. I am still on a slow learning curve. I have had a couple of formal lessons, but I think my colleague has provided the best lessons, during the House of Commons question period in particular.
With regard to her first question on prevention, I think it is important to note that because of the growth of divorce and the lack of the government involvement in focusing on a policy that is inclusive and beneficial to families, it has fostered situations that have become more difficult to contain and it has led to some of the problems we have.
We need a national strategy on how to work with families, whether it be through taxation, housing, employment or any of those things. There has to be a national strategy that would be driven by the House of Commons in partnership with the provinces. We have to recognize that each province is very different. For example, Quebec is different from Ontario in some of the needs that Ontario has. We have to be respectful of that.
There are traditions in the different areas, be they cultural or related to urbanization, rural areas or heritage. All those different things that started with the birth of Canada are still being played out today in very profound ways. We have to make sure that when we look at a national strategy we are very much focused toward provincial needs that are quite different. I know that Ontario is different from British Columbia and, once again, Quebec. All those things are there for good reasons and have built the country we have today, but we must be respectful of them because they will take us even farther.
With regard to curatives and the two spouses not being equal, that is a very important aspect. We know that women have been at a disadvantage or at least have had to fight and struggle to gain the same respect, the same opportunities and the same situations as men, not just individually but collectively. We have seen an actual movement toward some improvement in wages, but women are still not there. Men still earn more than women in many occupations and that is not right.
They also have very difficult problems to face after a marriage breakup. It gets very complicated because they often will have to deal with rearing the child in the home and all the issues that go with that, for example, getting up, getting the child ready, going to work, picking up the child after work and then doing all the other chores necessary at home. Males can be very involved. We have a lot of great fathers who have been very involved in their children's lives. However, they can be the greatest fathers, but if they are not actually on the premises or in the residence, it leads to a further challenge for the parents. It can work both ways.
We know there is certainly a disadvantage for women in our society right now. It certainly is not reflected in any of the statistics. I think we need to be very careful about that. We need to identify that as something to tackle in this proposed legislation when the witnesses come forward.