Mr. Speaker, in February 80,000 public servants in occupations dominated by women thought they had won a major victory in their 11 year struggle to win pay equity from the federal government.
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled against the government's attempt to quash the findings of a study that found a large wage gap between women and men in comparable positions in the public service and began hearings on how the government could make good on its legal obligations.
However, today we learned that the Liberals will try to steal that victory and continue to deny pay equity to public servants. The Liberals ought to be ashamed of the way they are evading their legal obligations at the tribunal's hearings by bringing forth the argument that pay equity discriminates against men. The idea is to pay women more, not men less.
The Liberals should heed the advice of Canada's human rights commissioner and take the lead in pay equity. The Liberals have thrown out a challenge to the private sector to be responsible. We in the New Democratic Party join with those Canadians who also expect the federal government to be a responsible employer.