Status of Women committee  Are there documents that are binding and others that are not? I don't know what is the status of that document.

Status of Women committee  This is not a competition, but the difference is that other countries are taking more action in favour of women. In Australia and in Singapore, for example, some money is given to mothers. Recently, Sweden has increased the financial assistance for fathers. These countries are basing their action on statistics that they have at their disposal.

Status of Women committee  Yes, it is true.

Status of Women committee  Yes, but what about this question about the unpaid labour? You are stopping that question.

Status of Women committee  It's a mess.

Status of Women committee  I would say to the comment that I agree. I mean, I'm kind of a pig-headed person. I didn't start wearing a seat belt until the law made me, and then I was mad at the law. I prefer the carrot, but what kind of carrot could we give them? A tax break? I don't know. I think that's exactly the problem with the people you're hearing from who are afraid: they're vulnerable.

Status of Women committee  These are the particular people who are going to be the most at risk if we don't let government make this survey. Because the data will still be there, and someone else will start collecting it. We put ourselves at risk for a commercial organization collecting the data, and they can ask really biased questions because they don't have the standard of ethics.

Status of Women committee  At the level of definitions, I always had a problem with Statistics Canada because their definition of work is different from mine. In each question where a person is asked whether he or she has worked, there is nothing to take into account the women who work but who are not paid for their work.

Status of Women committee  No.

Status of Women committee  It's more than hours. I would also count income sacrifice. Did you have to take time away from your paid work commitment to do the care work? There are other questions we could ask within this.

Status of Women committee  Can I comment on your comment?

Status of Women committee  Thank you for bringing that up. That is a key issue, and you're not the first or the only one to do so. A lot of people say, “It is a privilege. I love my kids. I want to feed them. I want to take care of them. I want to rock the baby to sleep. Why would you call that work? How insulting that is.”

Status of Women committee  I'm so used to being put down. This is just another blow. It surprises you and you're sick of it, but enough already. We're half of the population of this country and we're the caregivers of this country. And it's just amazing that they would take away that one little thing we had.

Status of Women committee  Could I just say that in my research, Statistics Canada has, over time, changed head of household, changed the marital status categories to five, and removed some things. I still have hope. We keep knocking on that door.

Status of Women committee  I can start. From what I understand, in order to do what they are now proposing to do, we will need to make a survey on a greater number of families. And there will be many people who will not answer. So it will take much more paper work, efforts, advertisements, publicity expenditures, and we will not have the same sample, as you indicated.