They are going to try to make this turkey look like a chicken and they are going to have one heck of a time doing it. I wish them well. When they take this boat in the next election, there are going to be torpedoes coming at them from every direction.
Part of me is saying that I cannot wait to see this legislation get off the ground because the government is going to have to live with it. It is like the dog that chases a car: What does he do with it when he catches it? My friends opposite are going to catch this car at the next election.
Let us talk about statistics and the employment equity legislation and the supposition that it is grounded on unreliable statistics. Much of this requires self-identification. The affirmative action police will go into a place of business and pass out a form to be filled out. People will be required to self-identify. Anybody who is going to try to get a job with the government now has to identify their race or whether they are part of a minority group. It is all part of the legislation.
The employment equity police are going to require people to identify themselves. I do not know if the House of Commons is trying it because it is such a progressive place or whether it is test legislation. At the time this was done there were 1,700 employees in the House of Commons. The response rate was 23 per cent and only 50 of those respondents identified themselves as belonging to a designated group.
People do not like to self-identify. As a matter of fact that was indicated in the Department of Justice paper I referred to a little earlier. It talked about the effectiveness of self-identification.
Let me quote from the Department of Justice employment equity guide: "The effectiveness of the self-identification process is questionable. Treasury Board is currently reviewing the process to improve it. There will always be a certain number of people who choose not to identify themselves as members of a target group for various reasons. One of the strongest reasons is the concern about being labelled a token employee and not seen as someone hired for their qualifications or because they have earned the position". This is from the Department of Justice.
Whoever drafted this legislation over in the Department of Justice must have been popping Tums all day. It must have been a long, hard day at work.
Interestingly, there was a 30 per cent increase in Canadians reporting a disability between the 1986 census and the 1991 census. We have to ask why in a five year period there would be a 30 per cent increase in the number of people reporting themselves as having a disability. Why has this identification occurred, particularly in view of the incentive to falsify self-identification surveys? I know that might sound kind of meanspirited but there is the potential for people to self-identify themselves one way or another in some of these surveys in order to gain an advantage in promotion or hiring.