Thank you, Mr. Chair.
On this particular amendment, I don't have any faith in the cabinet to perform its duties as related to the pay equity act, or anything really. We saw this morning that obviously many members don't feel that the Minister of Finance could come here and defend his fall economic statement either.
I'm generally a small, limited-government type of guy. It seems to me kind of pointless to write entire pay equity act provisions into the BIA and then provide the ability for the cabinet to provide exemptions to employers they so choose. It happens time and time again across other pieces of legislation being proposed by the government, to almost provide them with a “get out of jail” card. In case something happens, the cabinet will decide. That's as opposed to writing the legislation in such a way that either provincial legislation takes charge or federal legislation is paramount, and picking and choosing and writing the legislation in that manner.
It happens not too often, but there were some of the pay equity proposals by the NDP that we have supported. This one is one that I'm going to support.
Cabinet doesn't need more power. It has plenty of power as it is already. It doesn't know how to use it, and it abuses it sometimes. It makes bad decisions. I don't see why we should give them more power to provide exemptions to whomever they chose.