Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  This is going to be really fast. Page 97 of the task force report will give you very interesting information on relative disadvantages to women in terms of additional experience. I think that might be very interesting. There is a whole table there.

Status of Women committee  I can't give you the statistics, although the Treasury Board puts out annual reports on that. I can say that there is a comment in the task force report on the issue of visible minorities and the pay differentials that are found, as you say. That has not been part of the Canadian

Status of Women committee  As Ms. Pageau mentioned, the task force report also includes comments on aboriginals, visible minorities, and disabled people. In respect, I think Bill C-471, by its reference to the task force report, has a broader ambit than section 11 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, and it i

Status of Women committee  Could I give another very simple example of why the old equal-pay laws don't work? Under an equal-pay law, by and large you compared two jobs only to find out whether they were identical or not. For example, the cleaner who happens to be a lady—and I did work for the House of Com

Status of Women committee  I didn't understand your question.

Status of Women committee  Between the federal government and the provinces?

Status of Women committee  As I see it, the problem is that our laws do not facilitate pay equity. That is also the case in the private sector. Given that the Human Rights Act does not require a proactive approach, we have to wait for complaints to be made. Personally, I was involved in a complaint that t

Status of Women committee  Ms. Boucher, I think there's a problem with the legislation governing collective agreements, because every union has the right to bargain only on behalf of its own members. If those members are all women, a union cannot negotiate based on comparisons with jobs not covered by the

Status of Women committee  I think it's a backwards step. I'm not a lawyer, so I can't say whether it is contrary to the charter. I think that's a current challenge before the courts, actually, but I think it is an unfortunate step backwards. There's no real requirement in that act, no mechanism in that

Status of Women committee  I will be very brief. At this point in time, the federal government cannot implement pay equity under current laws. It's impossible.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. The equal pay principle is far simpler: you simply compare almost identical work. However, when it comes to pay equity, the comparison is made based on the value of the work done. So, it's a lot more complicated and it means that you are comparing all the work done by

Status of Women committee  Thank you. Very quickly, one of the features of most proactive legislation is that it is legislation separate from normal collective bargaining, and in my experience it is extremely positive to get people around the table talking about the common goal of equity. Even though ther

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to come to speak with you this morning. I want to essentially provide views on the shortcomings of both current pieces of legislation, that is, the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act as well as the Canadian Human Righ