Thank you so much.
First I'd like to say thank you to all three presenters. It was excellent.
I'm going to ask all my questions at once, and you can sort of put your thoughts together.
Ms. Mandal, you've mentioned that banks have made progress on pay equity, and Mr. Hynes, you've indicated that the gap is narrowing.
I'm following up on Ms. Benson's point. I'm a very big believer that what is not measured is not going to be worked on and that progress cannot be made, so I would highly recommend that if there are any statistics that give us any indication that banks have actually made progress on equal work of equal value, they be given to our committee. I'm a little bit worried that it wasn't presented today. That would be a very key thing to present.
There's a second thing I want to say, and I should let you know I am a former bank executive and I'm very familiar with banks. I've spent the majority of my life working in the banking industry at very senior levels, so I want to indicate that in my experience, unless there is a road map, a game plan, an executive champion, accountability, transparency, and reporting and rewards on progress, things aren't going to happen at the bank. I'd like to know whether or not that is actually happening at each of the banks, and if so, if you could relay where the progress is with all the banks. That's my first set of questions.
Second, with all due respect, Mr. Hynes, more reports and studies are not needed. The train has left the station. In 1977 pay equity was made a human right in Canada, and the reason we actually have this pay equity committee, in my personal opinion, is that we haven't made the progress we should have made on pay equity thus far. Now, even in saying all of that, I will say to you that I care a lot about costs for banks and I care a lot about costs for businesses. This means something to me; I care about our economy.
You have indicated, Mr. Hynes, that it is costly to put in a proactive model and it will be prohibitive from the administrative perspective. What data do you have or what more information can you give us on both of those fronts?