moved:
That the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities be designated to review the Employment Equity Act, pursuant to section 44(1) of the said Act.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by taking 30 seconds to speak about something which is no longer before the House right now. I simply wish to congratulate the hon. member for Yukon on what is an important day for him personally and even more so for his constituents. After all, we are the messengers for those who have sent us here, for these constituents of Yukon. We are all anxious to see this bill given royal assent, as it will be shortly, we hope. I congratulate the member and all those parliamentarians who took part in the historic debate which has just concluded in the House of Commons.
It is my pleasure today to put forward a motion in the House with respect to employment equity. As members know, the Employment Equity Act was passed by parliament a few years ago.
In fact, the first such act was passed in 1986 and was amended in 1996. In the 1996 legislation, there was, and still is, a provision requiring the House to review the legislation after five years and to suggest any necessary amendments.
I thank all the House leaders. After consulting with them, we agreed on the motion I have just put forward. Based on the debate which will take place over the next few minutes and the motion which will probably be adopted later today, if the agreement among the House leaders is any indication, the committee will henceforth be designated by the House of Commons to undertake the required five year review of the Employment Equity Act.
As I mentioned, the act was amended in 1996. We are still seeing the improvements and progress that resulted from those amendments. As the workplace continues to evolve, we must ensure that our legislation adequately responds to the realities of the day.
Canada is recognized as a world leader with its fairness and inclusion policies and practices. Our employment equity and indeed our anti-discrimination laws are among the most progressive and advanced in the world.
In fact, it is very interesting particularly at this juncture only a few days after His Excellency Dr. Nelson Mandela came to Canada to be honoured as an honorary citizen of our country, that the South African government which he led in 1998 used Canada's legislation as a model for its own. In other words, a country that had so far to go and had seen such discrimination, where the vast majority of its citizens were not even entitled to have a passport until a few years ago, modelled its legislation in terms of equity on ours.
That is tremendous testimony to the members of parliament of all parties who participated in previous reviews and contributed toward the law that we have on the books now, but that is not good enough. Having been a leader is good, but we want to continue to be that leader, to remain a leader, and to keep our legislation current.
We will now have a review of the act. Section 44 calls for “a comprehensive review of the provisions and operation” of the act every five years by a committee of the House of Commons. The government inserted that particular clause because it is essential to ensuring that the legislation does what it is supposed to do, and more important perhaps, that it continue to reflect the needs of Canadians and Canadian society generally.
In preparation for the review, officials of the Minister of Labour's office consulted stakeholders extensively in sessions held across Canada. When the officials appear before the parliamentary committee, they will already have the strength of the information given to them by various stakeholders throughout the land. We are told and we have no doubt that those officials have listened and have done their work very carefully. They have learned a number of things which they will want to share with the committee as a backdrop for the committee's work on this very important issue.
Officials of the government and of the Department of Labour have learned that the 1996 law under which we operate is a strong one. We did not doubt that for a moment. It still continues to be the case. We know that we have a solid foundation on which to continue building.
A consensus was reached among the stakeholders for increased education, support and leadership from labour programs. We know the issues and challenges that face all of us and the progress that is being made. That being said though, as I indicated previously, our efforts must continue.
From the results of the research and consultations, the government has prepared a report which will be presented to the parliamentary committee that will study this important piece of legislation. Hopefully the committee will be able to commence the review very shortly after we return toward the end of January. Perhaps it could even have an organization meeting before we--