Madam Speaker, I would argue with the hon. member who just finished speaking that a diverse workforce I agree is good for business. A workforce where one hires the best person one can hire is good business.
I certainly do not need a lecture about diversity in the workforce. As I mentioned earlier today, in British Columbia we understand and appreciate the contributions of people of all different ethnic backgrounds. If one does not and they are a business person they will soon be out of business in the lower mainland. My goodness, we are very cosmopolitan out there and very proud of it.
The problem of course is not that we do not appreciate diversity. The thing is we do not appreciate employment equity legislation. By the turn of the century, as the member mentioned, 85 per cent of job applicants will be from the so-called designated groups. Eighty-five per cent will be coming from those four groups. By all means, any business that refuses to hire from this 85 per cent, which is going to form part of the new economy in the next decade, is not going to get necessarily the best people for the jobs. That will mean their business will be less competitive. If they are systemically discriminatory I hope they go out of business because they should obviously be hiring people based on their merit not their ethnicity.
If we have a situation, for example, in Toronto where statistically-this is just statistically, because there are always variations-people of Portuguese background have a lower standard of living, fewer employment opportunities and even a lower graduation rate from high school, which is a fact in Toronto from the Toronto school board, do you design government programs based on need? In this case they are not a visible minority and do not qualify under the employment equity program-