Thank you very much.
I would like to endorse Madam Mourani's comments on pay equity. In particular, it is very important that we get a response from this government, whether it involves re-submitting the report we did before. We did have a commitment by the previous Minister of Justice and the previous Minister of Labour to introduce legislation. Even this morning in the news, there are two major private sector agreements on pay equity. It's a pressing issue for women across the country, and it's important that we move forward on it.
I would like to see us focus on the area of economic security for women. Last week Ms. Guergis spoke about it in terms of income splitting. It has come up as it relates to senior women, and it comes up regarding aboriginal women. It has an impact on young women today in terms of accumulating pension or not, and what happens further down the line if there is a marriage breakup, or whatever life hands out. The whole issue of economic security for women should be a priority of this committee. I would like to see us move forward on that in a very broad manner.
I'm repeating myself on the matrimonial property issue. I intended to bring the report with me today, but there was an extensive report done last year on matrimonial property that had almost 40 witnesses appear before the aboriginal affairs committee. The report has been tabled. The committee is attempting to re-submit it to Parliament for a response from the government. For whatever reason, the government chose to attempt to block it yesterday.
The area of matrimonial property is an important issue, but the work has been done already. To bring 37 witnesses to appear again before another committee is a waste of both human and financial resources and our time. I would suggest that we look at the report that was done by the aboriginal affairs committee to see whether we endorse it or not, and not try to reinvent the wheel as it relates to matrimonial property.
What that report did not do, Madam Chair, was look at the impact of Bill C-31 on aboriginal women, which also has far-reaching implications. We may want to do an appendix to it, but to reinvent the wheel and do another full report on matrimonial property is not using our time well, when we have such a full agenda of potential areas of discussion.
The other quick comment is that I'd like to speak again to the issue of re-submitting all the reports that were done by this committee last year for a response from government. It came up last week, and some members said they hadn't had an opportunity to read them. But as part of our work on this committee, it is important that they be read and voted on, as to whether they be re-submitted.