Pay Equity committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Honourable members, good evening. Thank you for inviting the Canadian Human Rights Commission to take part in this discussion about pay equity in the federal jurisdiction. Our chief commissioner Marie-Claude Landry sends her regrets for not being here

Pay Equity committee  At this point, then, the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board is applying section 11 of our act, the section we used to apply through the complaints model. Since 2009, the PSLREB is applying section 11 of our act. That would change under the Public Sector Equitabl

Pay Equity committee  Are you suggesting PSECA is a proactive model, or are you just asking for the differences between PSECA and what occurs under our legislation?

Pay Equity committee  As we understand it, under PSECA, equitable compensation, as it's referred to under that legislation, would be dealt with through collective bargaining as opposed to, under our process, through complaints. That would be one difference. We understand that under PSECA after collec

Pay Equity committee  We don't know. Under PSECA, for example, there is a regulation-making power, and we don't know what those regulations would be in terms of how the process would unfold. Depending on how those regulations would be drafted, they could impact on the result. To be clear, we're not

Pay Equity committee  It's the will of Parliament, of course...who should be dealing with it. We do have experience, as you may know, under the Employment Equity Act, which is a proactive model. The Canadian Human Rights Commission has the mandate to audit employers for compliance with the Employmen

Pay Equity committee  I'll begin, and I'll defer to my colleagues if they have more detail. In my view, it would be a melding of the models that are out there right now. We know there are these three models—Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba—that have now been working for quite some time. It would make se

Pay Equity committee  Right.

Pay Equity committee  It's around that.

Pay Equity committee  Yes. As I say, we would look to the models that are in existence in these provincial jurisdictions, where timelines are set out, time frames for compliance with the legislation. Then there are requirements about wage adjustments. It is all set out in the legislation, and everybod

Pay Equity committee  That is correct.

Pay Equity committee  A complaint, that's right.

Pay Equity committee  Yes. We would describe it more as reactive, and as you can imagine, a bit uneven as well, because you can have one employer in one industry facing a complaint and then having to remedy that particular complaint, whereas other organizations in the same industry are not facing the

Pay Equity committee  That is correct.

Pay Equity committee  Absolutely.