Those are the types of strategies that are critical, because they send a message. I think there is a symbolic benefit to it apart from the practical benefits. When the government sends a message at the highest level of government that this is something that's important to our country, that's important to us as a society and actually legislates it such that there are consequences for.... You can pay lip service to something, and they say that talk is cheap. You can talk the talk or you can walk the walk. Sometimes people need to be given that additional push in order to walk the walk.
That's why I think these programs are very important. They're going to draw criticism. Balancing and all those kinds of things always have to happen. From a symbolic perspective and from a practical perspective, there are huge benefits to those kinds of programs.
Most of my practice, about 90% of it, is employment law. I don't practise at the federal level. Most of my practice is provincially regulated. I see issues and challenges that come up in the workplace all the time. I mostly manage [Technical difficulty—Editor] side. I act for employers and businesses, and understand the day-to-day challenges that employers face. At the same time, it's so important to have diverse workplaces and to have employers who are empowered to know how to manage diverse workforces.
To the extent that there are resources available.... Big corporations that I represent do okay in this sphere. The smaller businesses struggle a little bit more. They don't have the resources and they don't have the time to understand. Often, people will hire from their own communities or those kinds of things.
That being said, I'm seeing more and more that workforces are becoming more diverse. That's just a reflection of Canadian society. We'd like to see management start to reflect Canadian society as well so it's not just the entry-level positions. That's a whole other topic that I could get into sometime, but it's a very good one, so thank you for raising it.