Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be associated with my colleagues, the Minister of Human Resources Development and the Secretary of State for Training and Youth, in bringing to the House a proposal for the new employment equity act.
We are certain the parliamentary committee that will review this bill will be very attentive to the views of interested people and to various groups on this matter. We are looking forward to the discussions in committee and to the debate in the House.
The Prime Minister had it right when he addressed the French Senate a short time ago. He said that because of the sacrifices and efforts of the women and men who have come from the four corners of the world, we have succeeded in building in Canada a society that is pluralistic and equitable and that is founded on open-mindedness, tolerance, generosity and sharing.
As citizens of this country, we can be proud of the progress our society has made. I do not believe that Canadians have finished evolving. Although we have made remarkable progress towards equity, I do not think that everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute fully.
We all know there is room for more open-mindedness, more tolerance, more generosity and more sharing. That is what employment equity is all about. It is a policy of inclusion, not exclusion; of openness, not discrimination; of sharing, not restricting. That is what my hon. friend does not seem to get through his head.
It was in the 1970s that greater attention began to be paid to questions of equity and equality. One consequence was the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Even before that, Parliament enacted the Canadian Human Rights Act and the first steps were taken toward a policy of affirmative action that became in due course employment equity.
What employment equity seeks to do is to break down barriers to equality in the workplace, that is to ensure that no person is denied employment opportunities for reasons unrelated to ability. At the same time it puts in place measures to assist in creating a level playing field for aboriginal peoples, for persons with disabilities, for persons in a visible minority and for women.
On a wall in Ottawa that is otherwise undistinguished someone has scrawled: "Equal treatment does not equal equality". Employment equity recognizes that truth. Differences must be recognized and accepted if there is to be greater equality. The fact of recognizing these differences and doing something to diminish them does not constitute discrimination, as some may claim. On the contrary, it contributes to the equality of opportunity of all citizens and does not diminish any.
Some examples concerning the four designated groups may explain how employment equity is pursued in the public service and indeed often in the private sector as well. Although women are entering the public service in greater numbers than in the past, they are clustered in large measure in what are called pink ghettos. They are heavily represented in fields such as teaching, nursing and clerical work. Women working full time earn less than three-quarters of what men make. In the public service women constitute about 85 per cent of the administrative support category, the clerical workers, but only about 18 per cent of the executive group.
It was recognized some years ago that if women were to become managers in the public service, they would need assistance in overcoming the barriers they faced. Among the measures put in place was a bureau within the Public Service Commission to help women prepare themselves for tasks that had for a long time been almost the exclusive preserve of men.
Alternative work arrangements were introduced as well. These arrangements vary from tele-work to job sharing. Managers are encouraged to permit all employees to take advantage of these if possible, if it makes sense. Nevertheless, women need these alternative arrangements more because they still carry the major burden of family responsibilities.
Recently the pension provisions were amended so that part time employees could contribute. Again both men and women are eligible, but we know that 26 per cent of women work part time as compared to 10 per cent of men.
These are the fruits of a consciousness that includes employment equity. The progress that has been made, however, still leaves women far from equal. Corporate culture has to change too. There has to be a willingness to encourage the contributions of women and of all employees. That is also a matter of employment equity.
The accommodations made for persons with disabilities would be applauded by all members of the House. The Government of Canada has a policy to make its facilities accessible to all Canadians with disabilities, whether they are members of the public or employees.
A policy encourages departments to provide their employees who have disabilities with the technical aids they need to accomplish their jobs. That policy is backed up with a fund that has been placed at the disposal of the Public Service Commission. As an example, if a person who is visually impaired needs a computer with a voice synthesizer, then one will be provided.
In some departments, people with learning disabilities were hired to do work that others might not have found stimulating. The results were outstanding. That is employment equity at work.
In another government department students with disabilities were hired under a special program for two summers in a row. The students acquired workplace knowledge and skills that they might not otherwise have been able to gain. Perhaps even more important, the project has worked to break down the psychological barriers that persons with disabilities face. It also served to
prove that persons with disabilities can be as productive as other employees. They too have abilities.
This was no doubt what the Governor General had in mind when he said earlier this month on the International Day of Disabled Persons that individuals with a disability are often marginalized by discrimination and that their opportunities are diminished by ignorance. Employment equity exists to open the doors to persons with disabilities so that they too can participate fully in the workplace.
A recent Statistics Canada study showed that among well-educated persons with disabilities, aboriginal peoples and persons of visible minority, the earning gap was closing. Although 1990 university graduates with disabilities earn some 7 per cent less than other graduates, the more important gap is in employment rates. Among university graduates with disabilities the employment rate is 6 percentage points lower than for other graduates. The gap is 12 per cent for community college graduates. Even those with relatively minor limitations have more difficulty in finding jobs than other graduates.
The story is about the same for aboriginal people. Aboriginal graduates from community colleges in 1990 have an unemployment rate that is almost 10 per cent higher than other community college graduates. The playing field simply is not level. There are a number of tools available to level the playing field. One used by the Public Service Commission is to enrich the pool of candidates. You will not have any aboriginal employees if you do not have any aboriginal candidates. You will not have the candidates if you do all the hiring through word of mouth. Even then you may not have a good selection of aboriginal candidates to consider. They may not come forward perhaps because they believe that they would not be selected. Therefore, you need a program of outreach not to guarantee a job but to provide assurances that they can compete with the principle of merit. The principle of merit is paramount in our system in the Public Service of Canada.
Once an aboriginal employee has been hired the manager may find that a certain amount of cultural adaptation is required both in his part and on the part of the employee.
Persons in visible minorities are also under-represented in the public service in comparison with the members in the workforce. Like women and persons with disabilities, persons in a visible minority are of all backgrounds. Some are recent immigrants and some have been here for decades or hundreds of years such as the black people from Nova Scotia.
One of the problems faced by the public service is that although persons in a visible minority are fairly well represented in the scientific and professional category they are not moving up in proportional numbers into the ranks of senior management. A part of the solution was found within the framework of employment equity programs in the form of a special course that we developed through the Canadian centre for management development to help certain people to develop their management skills.
Finally, whether these candidates succeed will depend on their qualifications and ability. The merit principle must govern and the person considered to be the most competent-
