Thank you, Chair.
This is an amendment proposed by the Equal Pay Coalition. It represents 44 different associations, businesses, professional women, unionized women, non-union women and community groups across the province of Ontario.
Ontario has had pay equity legislation for a long time. My late aunt Kim Malcolmson was an early worker in the Ontario Pay Equity Commission. Honestly, when I was in high school, she was my feminist aunt. I found her a bit radical at the time. I was so honoured that she was with me when I was sworn in as a member of Parliament. I gave her shout-outs throughout a lot of our pay equity debates. She was so proud that I was the voice that the NDP chose to advance our first opposition day motion. We were so glad to have had the government's support on that.
She died just about three months ago, just a couple of days after Patrick Brown stepped down. Actually, as a long-time CCF supporter and New Democrat, she left on a high note.
That said, the Ontario experience is very important in this work. I know that you heard from Fay Faraday and Jan Borowy who have extensive experience. They flagged that there were some fundamental pieces that needed to change in this legislation. They said in their testimony—and we've already lost this vote, but I'll say it again—that making fundamental human rights subject to the diverse needs of employers is non-negotiable. However, it remains because I lost the vote on that amendment.
Here is another one of their pieces of advice. This is in paragraph 103 of their submission. Their proposal is that deleting lines 2 to 5 on page 431 of Bill C-86 is the remedy. The rationale is that, in their own words, “Women should not be blocked from taking broad claims of systemic gender discrimination, inclusive of equal value claims, to the CHRA”, the Canadian Human Rights Act. They want this clause of the bill to be deleted. They say that women should be able to rely on section 7 and section 10 of the Canadian Human Rights Act instead when making equal pay for equal value claims.
I'll take you back to their opening testimony to committee. They said:
...there are a number of provisions you've included in the legislation that have already been found to be unconstitutional.
...the legislation actually gives less protection in some areas than the Canadian Human Rights Act currently does. For example, it has less protection in the compensation for part-time and temporary workers than currently exists....
Also the pay equity act does not close all the different gaps in compensation that are discriminatory.
They also said:
You've also included provisions that are unconstitutional and that the Supreme Court just struck down in May of this year, dealing with blocking retroactive pay for gaps that have been identified.
Mr. Chair, I propose our amendment, NDP-33, which is that Bill C-86, in clause 416, be amended by deleting lines 2 to 5 on page 431. This is the advice of the Equal Pay Coalition.