My goodness, I guess I have struck a raw nerve.
Perhaps I could go on and describe for the members the difficulties inherent in their policies from the point of view of working women. They might not recognize that 70% of women in the workforce today have preschool children. I would hope it might get through to the Conservatives so they could understand that when this is the reality and when they have a policy that does not address the needs of those families and working women by ensuring good quality care, instead giving a few pennies to help parents juggle working family responsibilities, clearly they have ignored the reality of women in our society today.
Perhaps I only need to point out to them the numerous headlines that suggest the birth rate is at 0%. The birth rate is not growing because it is very hard for families to juggle their responsibilities without any decent support by government. Decent support means quality child care. Decent support means places where people can take their children when they are working, places that are safe and regulated, where there is professional staff, places that are non-profit so no one can make money off the backs of kids.
What we have is a policy that is slanted against working women. The Conservatives today are where the Liberals were 20 years ago when members in this House stood and said, “Working women are a social phenomenon”, or, “We only have to worry about men who are employed between the ages of 18 and 40, because after all they are the primary workers”. Never mind the contribution that women make. Never mind the fact that because of the policies of consecutive Conservative and Liberal governments, families cannot possibly manage to make ends meet without two people in the family working. Those members should get that through their heads because that is what we are dealing with today. We are dealing with a situation where women want to work or have to work, and our policies should ensure that their children are able to go to the best quality child care spaces available.