Mr. Speaker, I would first like to tell my colleague that he may not have followed my personal election campaign, since I am sure that in that campaign, I spoke about women’s issues at some length. It is unfortunate that he did not follow my election campaign. I realize that there were many local campaigns, but I can assure him that it was discussed during the election campaign.
With regard to the committee, we do not want it to be just a study by the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. We really want the committee to focus on the pay equity issue and do concrete work on the subject. We believe that this mandate is important enough and broad enough to occupy a committee for some time. We do not want it to be a single study that will take up two or three meetings of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. We believe that the issue is important enough for people to study the matter for an appreciable length of time. That is why we are requesting a special committee.
That said, if the member believes that this motion does not require the attention it deserves, that is very unfortunate. Personally, however, I am convinced that we need to study this issue for a sufficiently long period of time. Although we had achieved equity in some occupations, there have unfortunately been setbacks over the years, because wage increases have not adhered to the equity principle.