Status of Women committee  That's right. I'd like to add something to what was said about women doctors. I suggest that you consult the record of hearings that took place here in May of 2009. I was in the room when three women doctors, with between 10 and 25 years of experience, stated that they do not enj

Status of Women committee  The other thing with unionization is that we will represent the women and the workers and take it through the processes, whereas non-unionized groups are working all by themselves.

Status of Women committee  I can tell you that, on our side, the Bell case cost us between $4 and $5 million for the services of one lawyer and one assistant. Bell had seven lawyers attending the hearings every single day. So, if it cost us between $4 and $5 million, I can't even imagine what it cost Bell

Status of Women committee  If I understood your question, you're referring to the Task Force's recommendations. One of those recommendations is: the adoption of a new proactive pay equity law; the expansion of pay equity coverage to include women and Aboriginal workers, workers with disabilities and raci

Status of Women committee  The best case to give you an example of how.... It's not just equal work for equal work. It's equal value. For instance, the most famous case is how we value zookeepers, who take care of animals, compared to women, who take care of children. The zookeepers have been found to be

Status of Women committee  Of course, it's going backwards. I'm not going to repeat what my colleagues have said. My concern is that if we start saving money on the backs of women, where does it stop? What is next? That's pretty frightening.

Status of Women committee  Fifteen years...?

Status of Women committee  Well, we need proactive legislation, which is what is being recommended in the task force recommendations. I urge all of you to really study that task force. It talks about the involvement of the union. It talks about the liability of the employer. I'm not quite sure I understa

Status of Women committee  Yes, absolutely.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. As far as I'm concerned, the consequences are quite clear. How many years now have we been waiting for action on pay equity? If this falls through in the next few months, the women of Canada at the federal level will not have pay equity. There will be two systems of p

Status of Women committee  Paul can answer that question.

Status of Women committee  I totally disagree that pay equity, as a human right, can be bargained. You cannot bargain away a human rights issue. It's fundamentally accepted that you can't do that. Unions do not control the budgets of the employers. They hold the purse strings. If you want to see the succe

Status of Women committee  Good morning, everybody. I've prepared a statement so that I can stay within the five minutes. I think I'm three seconds over, so I hope you'll indulge me. The CEP appreciates the opportunity to appear before the standing committee and to comment on proposed Bill C-471. The CEP

Status of Women committee  I'm going to refer this to my colleague.

Status of Women committee  I will do it very quickly, because I can't repeat. I can tell you that we have to develop proactive laws if we want to change things. We have to start thinking outside the box. What happens, at present, is that we have all stopped at the same spot, and we can't think of what mi