Well you see: with so few daycare places willing to take a child younger than 18 months, many women have no other choice than to quit their jobs and take care of the baby during the interim. Now instead of being off for a only short term, she's out all together. She's not paying taxes (which she would have paid on the ei benefits she'd have received) and not contributing to the economy/GDP. What's worse -- it's hard for stay-at-home mothers to re-enter the job market, so she's likely to be off work a lot longer than she would have intended. Permitting an additional 6 months of leave is the best way to ensure working women can have babies, find daycare and get back to work in a timely fashion.