Thank you.
Thank you very much to all the witnesses for your time this morning. I would like to say that my comments are in the context of the comments of my colleague, John McCallum, that there are many parts of this budget that we as Liberals do not support, that we do not like, but there is an overwhelming need in this country to deal with the economic challenge. We do understand the need to get money out, particularly to those in need, as soon as possible.
I will also make the comment to my other colleague, Mr. Menzies, that the effort to get money out to those who need it quickly does not necessarily need to have pay equity legislation, navigable waters legislation, and various other aspects in this budget bill that are not necessarily budget items.
In those two contexts, however, in understanding that the pay equity legislation proposal is flawed, I would like to do what we can to be constructive. Pay equity is an issue for both unionized and non-unionized women. I appreciate very much the input from the unionized sector this morning, but I also want to make sure that it's clear that it affects non-unionized women. So my question is to Madame Asselin. Acknowledging, if you will, that there is a need for legislation--and you can disagree with me--do you support the concept that the human rights commission approach has not been perfect, that there is a need for firm legislation at the federal level? If you do, do you support the examples we have seen so far in Quebec, as you talked about, in Manitoba, and in Ontario? I ask that in an effort to add input to the Conservative government to possible ways that they can improve what they're proposing.