I can't speak from personal knowledge of what happened or didn't happen in the wake of the report being published. I know from the record that the government of the day responded by saying that it felt there was not a sufficient consensus among all the stakeholders who would be affected by it to move forward in adopting the recommendations of the report. That's my understanding from reading the historical record.
On your second question about the usefulness of the Bilson report today, I think it is probably one of the most comprehensive looks at the subject ever undertaken in Canada, certainly, and in terms of it being a starting point, I don't think anyone would disagree that it would be a critical place to start to consider what in 2016 would be a good pay equity model. But in regard to the fact that 12 years have passed, I think that from a purely policy development point of view there should be at least some sort of exercise of consulting broadly, of talking to employers and to unions and finding out what they think of this 12 years later. So yes, it's a good starting point, but not the only one.
With respect to responsibilities, as I said in my presentation, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour is broadly responsible for labour matters in the federal private sector, including crown corporations, and therefore has a role, along with other ministers, in coming to a consensus within government on what policy to go forward with.