Thank you very much.
During the time that we discussed the amendments to this bill, at our discussions on Tuesday, countries around the world were moving ahead of us already. Iceland has had legislation on equal pay come before their government. Also, there's an organization called the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, and what they're doing is shaming corporations that don't have any diversity on their boards. It's being spearheaded by teachers' unions and federations and other labour-led organizations.
While we're discussing all these things and all the reasons why we can do it behind the scenes through regulation, there are organizations that are doing the job that we're not prepared to do, or that some members of this committee aren't prepared to do. It's like we're standing still, in my opinion. Legislatures around the world.... Even in the United States, on equal pay, Minnesota has legislation for this, and corporations that have over 25 employees have to provide certification of their pay and their pay grids, etc.
I am still baffled, even after Mr. Lametti's comments. No disrespect to him, but they really didn't tell me anything more than what I heard from his Liberal colleagues on Tuesday. I was thinking that there would be some actual wording put towards a regulation or at least a framework behind it.
Again, I think that what Mr. Masse is presenting, and what our party has presented, is about legislators trying to legislate something in the law that makes a difference for people, and specifically the people Mr. Masse and Mr. Dreeshen have mentioned.
Yesterday was a pretty impressive day on Parliament Hill, which you would think would empower members of Parliament to consider putting language into law that would empower those people, those women who were on the Hill yesterday. Days like today, when I sit here and listen to all the reasons and excuses why we can't put words like this into law, make me feel that if in four years they hold a day like they had yesterday, they should do it not in the House of Commons but in the office buildings at Industry Canada, because those are the people, apparently, who are prepared to do something to make a difference. It's not the legislators who are; it's the public servants who work down the street. That's probably where we should have our celebrations next time we do that, because those are the people who are bold enough or brave enough to do something about it.
We can discuss this all day long. We can talk about other examples of how the government is going to be left in the dust. Teachers' federations, teachers' labour unions, and other labour associations and organized labour are going to do the heavy lifting for this Parliament, because this Parliament doesn't want to do it and isn't interested in doing it. From what I can see, the best offer we have is “have faith in us”. They're saying, “We don't have anything to present today, but have faith in us.”
We've had two months to put something before this committee as an act of good faith and we don't see it. It's disappointing. I'm not saying that it's hypocritical, but it is disappointing. We'll see what happens.