Thank you.
First, there are two things. This committee is looking at pay equity as opposed to.... At the moment it is illegal to discriminate on pay, so if someone's a heavy duty mechanic and a man, or a heavy duty mechanic and a woman, and they're getting paid differently, that's against the law. But what we're trying to get at here and what the 2004 report is about is the fact that there's work being performed of equal value, but because it's being performed predominantly by women or predominantly in professions that women are in, the discrimination is happening on a broader scale.
To your point, it's not as easy to figure that out, and it's certainly not easy for an individual to figure out. You're in there with 3,000 other people all not getting paid the same or enough. It's hard.
The complaints-based system has been tried and then we veered off and had the public service do their own version, and then we have federally regulated employers doing something different.
Just to my point, because I really do feel that we can move on this issue, I respectfully understand that lots of different departments have expertise within areas that would touch on pay equity, but it is a concern of mine that the conversation about who's going to start when, and who's going to lead, and whose budgets it will be from.... Those things do concern me. They do get into those bureaucratic conversations and, to be cynical, we keep talking about it, as opposed to....
I would be interested to hear from each of your departments. Have you actually had a conversation about pay equity and about where it fits, whether it's framed within the minister's mandate or whether it has been part of a conversation? I'd just like a clarification of what your role is in pay equity.