Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her hard work on the pay equity committee. I would note that the only criticism that was made of that report was that it was not going fast enough. There is a pretty good consensus across parties on the need for pay equity.
To answer the member's question in short, it will be this year. The budget actually includes proactive pay equity legislation, where pay equity will become a human right.
In fact, I was particularly pleased, because the budget goes even beyond the 2004 Bilson report and accepts the recommendations of our special committee on pay equity that pay equity apply not only to the federal public service and to the federally regulated sector, but also to all federal contractors. This is about the broadest definition that we can have of pay equity and pay transparency.
I am extremely pleased that we will be bringing in pay equity legislation that, once enacted, is going to cover 80% of Canadians.