Mr. Speaker, I rise here in the House today because, on March 5, 2009, I asked the President of the Treasury Board a question, but I did not receive a satisfactory answer.
I therefore rise again here this evening, hoping that I will get a somewhat more satisfactory answer concerning pay equity. Some 30 years ago, the federal government passed a law that made it illegal to discriminate against women in the workplace. Yet we are far from achieving pay equity for women. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that the wage gap between men and women is actually increasing. Women should always be able to count on government intervention to ensure that their fundamental right to pay equity is finally respected.
Now more than ever, the federal government must pass proactive pay equity legislation. I was largely inspired by a Public Service Alliance of Canada document, that is, a document from our employees who know very well what this is all about, since they, themselves, do not have pay equity at this time.
A task force published a report and the adoption of proactive federal pay equity legislation was a priority demand of the 2000 World March of Women in Canada. As a result of this mobilization, the federal justice minister appointed the Pay Equity Task Force in 2001 to examine the shortcomings of the system and propose solutions.
The task force spent three years doing extensive research on the issue and consulting with unions, women's groups, and human rights groups throughout the country. The group organized round tables with unions and employers to understand the problems and explore proposed solutions, particularly in Ontario and Quebec.
In May 2004, the task force published its report, Pay Equity: A New Approach to a Fundamental Right, which contained several recommendations. The main recommendation was that the government put in place proactive pay equity legislation. We hoped that the government would move forward with this proactive legislation. We waited but realized that the Prime Minister did not support pay equity.
In 1998, when he was the head of the National Citizens Coalition, he declared, “For taxpayers, pay equity is a rip-off. And it has nothing to do with gender. Both men and women taxpayers will pay additional money to both men and women in the civil service. That is why the federal government should scrap its ridiculous pay equity law.”
Thus, it is not surprising that the Conservative Party is doing an about-face on pay equity and today wants us to pass so-called legislation requiring these people to attempt to obtain a small degree of pay equity through collective bargaining. That is not how you achieve pay equity. Pay equity is a right that should be guaranteed.