Status of Women committee  I would answer all those measures.

Status of Women committee  You shouldn't tell us that we don't have to talk. We're going to take the opportunity to talk. As we mentioned throughout our presentation, and as you've already observed as a standing committee, single-parent families headed by a woman are among the poorest families. They are v

Status of Women committee  One woman talked about pension reform. Should we increase the guaranteed income supplement? That affects women, most of the time. Every year, I laugh when I receive a notice telling me the amount I can contribute to an RRSP. I say to myself that it will take a long time before I

Status of Women committee  I'll answer the second question. Some women find themselves in a situation where they can't work because they have children. In general, the couple decides quite quickly that the mother will stay at home, even though it is sometimes the father. Demands are being made, together w

Status of Women committee  I'd like to go back to the same subject, and then we can talk about the fight against poverty. You talked about the communities, but, at the same time, we shouldn't replace the public systems. In Quebec, as in the rest of Canada, we realize that we have to fund and support commu

Status of Women committee  Quebec is in midst of an election campaign. The present premier has emphasized that he would use that amount to cut taxes. For the moment, we aren't very satisfied with what the premier intends to do with the $800 million that Quebec has just received. When you talk about transf

Status of Women committee  We had little time to prepare, because we didn't find out until last week that we were to appear before you today. We could have provided much broader coverage. We tried to cover the essential issues concerning women, particularly women heads of single-parent families. Obviously

Status of Women committee  Blended families must have been blended for a long time. A number of families are blended, but they fall apart because the more children there are, the more difficult factors there are, depending on the state of the relationship, the break-up and so on. However, in economic term

Status of Women committee  That's somewhat what we explained earlier. Child care services are not just for well-to-do families; they are for all Quebec families, including low-income families. Earlier we said that there are additional support measures apart from child care services. For example, the child

Status of Women committee  What I would feel more like saying is that, in the rest of Canada, they should draw more on Quebec's successes in this area. I think that what Madame said earlier regarding the communities, for example, shows that they are much less supported in the rest of Canada than Quebec. So

Status of Women committee  What I wanted to add is that we do know that, when we become mothers, there is always a withdrawal, a period of time when we are out of the labour market. During all those periods, unlike most men, we lose the opportunity to contribute, for example, to the Quebec Pension Plan. As

Status of Women committee  It will be me.

Status of Women committee  Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting us. We sent you our brief, but it is being translated. It will not be available to committee members until tomorrow. Our federation has been in existence for more than 30 years. Over the years, we have worked in particular to ensure the gr

Status of Women committee  Can we each have 10 minutes?