Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is delighted with the way the Employment Equity Act has been enforced.
As the minister said, there is still work to be done. I will refer to his words from time to time in my address: “—we have to continue working...” “[we must] advance [the file]”, “...I [therefore] encourage employers to continue their efforts”, and “...but we still have challenges to meet—”.
I must say that he is quite right. There is still much to be done before the situation becomes truly equitable for certain groups, namely women, aboriginals, persons with disabilities and visible minorities.
This act was passed 20 years ago, and still things are not all resolved. We are all headed in the right direction, but we feel there is still a lot to be done to reach our objectives. We will all agree that the advances testify to the openness of employers towards groups that were discriminated against, and that sometimes still are.
The Bloc Québécois values diversity, inclusion and respect for differences, as we know. Administrative measures and laws are nevertheless necessary. At present, most of the laws tend towards equity, but not everything has been resolved. There are still a few laws to tie up, such as the one on preventive withdrawal. We feel, though, that these laws provide the catalyst for changing behaviour. It is important for them to exist and to be properly enforced.
As I have already said, there are still obstacles to overcome, notably with regard to women, who naturally are the ones most involved in raising children.
In Quebec, the Government of Quebec has made genuine efforts to eliminate these obstacles, for instance, by putting in place a network of quality daycare centres, at $7 a day, and by providing better parental leave, which enables women to combine work and family more easily.
Preventive withdrawal legislation also enables pregnant women whose working conditions are not healthy for their fetus or for them to stop working and receive compensation that is considerably better than that offered under federal legislation.
The current government plans to cut $850 million in transfers to Quebec and give $1,200 directly to families. This will never compensate for all the work done by Quebec in connection with daycare centres.
Many obstacles remain for the target groups. The Bloc Québécois has been interested in this situation for a long time. In fact, it has proposed bills designed to enable women who work for an employer under federal jurisdiction to take advantage of genuine preventive withdrawal when they need it, and has also proposed measures aimed at better protecting workers from psychological harassment.
In closing, I will say that, as far as employment equity is concerned, laws must exist. As I mentioned earlier, this is the catalyst for changing the sorts of behaviour that should now be improved.