What a gift to have extra time.
Minister, we've had a number of witnesses come before us on the matter of pay equity. To use the words of Vicky Smallman from the Canadian Labour Congress, “Let's get this done in 2017.”
Diana Sarosi from Oxfam, when asked whether she could explain any rationale for why pay equity legislation is being delayed beyond what the committee or anybody asked for, said, “No, we have not heard what the...barriers are.” Jennifer Howard from the Public Service Alliance of Canada pointed out that there's no reason to delay until 2018, because the road map for the new law was provided in the 2004 pay equity task force report of the previous Liberal government.
This new budget had no specific benchmarks for narrowing the wage gap at all. I'm sure that you're concerned, as I am, that women get equal pay for work of equal value. Why delay pay equity legislation until 2018, until the very end of your mandate?