Madam Speaker, I would like to respond to the question from the member opposite about Canada's respect for women's rights and a purported pay gap that puts us behind some other countries.
Canada has an unparalleled record with respect to women's rights and making sure that the government has obligations in this area.
We are fortunate in this country. Our federal public service employees are among the best and the brightest, and their work is tied to the well-being of our country.
We expect much from our public servants. In turn, the public service offers women and men competitive salaries and a full range of family-friendly benefits.
We should be especially proud of the progress toward greater gender balance that has been made in the public service, particularly within the senior ranks.
Back in 1983, fewer than 5% of women were in senior management. Today, women make up 44% of the senior and executive ranks of the federal public service. That is almost 50%. That is almost half of the people in the senior public service. That is a significant increase.
Women are taking their rightful place in the federal public service. Their representation in many professional groups has also increased dramatically over the years. For example, women now represent nearly 56% of the economics and social science group, 55% of the law group, and about 46% of the commerce officer group.
Over the past few years, there has been a significant change in the face of Canada's public service. Women have played a big role in this change.
Today, women and men in the public service have equal access to all positions and identical wages within the same groups and levels.
The situation is not perfect, but remarkable progress has been made in addressing the wage gap between men and women in the federal public service.
Since 1999, the difference between total wages for women and total wages for men has been decreasing steadily. In fact, since 1999, this gap has closed by 6.8%.
Today, women in the core public administration make on average almost 90% of men's wages. With more young women entering the workforce in knowledge jobs, women's wages in the under 35 age category are 96.5% of the wages of men. This bodes well for the future.
My colleague opposite claims that we are doing nothing concrete. That could not be farther from the truth.
In 2009, we enacted the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act. This represents a much needed reform of the old complaint-based pay equity regime, which has proven to be a lengthy, costly and adversarial process. Our more modern collaborative approach is proactive and will ensure that the strides women have made in the federal public sector continue to be maintained without the process being unnecessarily lengthy, costly and adversarial.
Our commitment to the fundamental values of fairness and equal rights between men and women is an example to the world.