You still didn't answer my question, but I'll try a different question and hope for an answer.
Minister, your departmental plan states that WAGE will focus on “reducing the wage gap”.
Recently the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report entitled “Fiscal Analysis of Federal Pay Equity”. The purpose of this report was to examine the cost of closing the wage gap, which is a concept that we support. However, the government would not release the information requested by the PBO so that he could make a proper assessment and a report. Additionally, he noted that over $49 million had been allocated to research and setting up an office.
Minister, can you please tell the committee why the government believes it needs to spend $49 million to research an issue that we already have significant studies on? What is the government hiding? Why won't it release the information requested by a non-partisan independent parliamentary officer?