I'll say again, because this is my final opportunity to comment on this legislation and this process, that we have had four decades of fighting this in court. We have lawyers and labour activists who have been on the front line. They have been working hands-on and had great hopes that, as a rationale for delaying this legislation three years in this government and 42 years since it was first proposed by another Trudeau prime minister, we would get it right.
We received this testimony maybe only two weeks ago. The timeline has been so short. This is another amendment that the human rights lawyers who are working daily with human rights cases and pay equity have made. That the member finds it to be inadequate or unnecessary just doesn't fit with the spirit of wanting to perfect the legislation, to make this work and to make it challenge-proof and easier for women.
I hope that the member has had the opportunity to talk to the witnesses directly or ask them some more detailed questions on their submissions. They found repeatedly, in multiple places, that this legislation could be improved. The government hasn't taken up a single one of them. Their concerns were serious: no intersectional analysis, no provisions currently for women in female-dominated workplaces that don't have access to a male comparator, no specialized stand-alone pay equity commission and pay equity hearings tribunal, no provisions as recommended for non-union women, no pay transparency. On this one about Canadian human rights, if the government members can't find it in them to vote in favour of this, then I don't know what happened to the party of the charter, honestly.
I'm very grateful to the organizations that participated in this very truncated process in good will, and I am personally disappointed that my arguments have not been sufficient to actually change a single element of this legislation. I wonder if, as we had hoped, this bill had been stand-alone and sent to the status of women committee or the labour committee, it might have had a better run than it did simply running through the filter of finance.
I say that with the greatest respect, but also with thanks to our labour and pay equity partners and with disappointment that I haven't been able to affect any of the language in this legislation.