Pay Equity committee  I would just quickly like to underscore the difference between pay equity in an organization and the wage gap. Legislation should not hold an employer responsible for closing the more general wage gap. I think that would be quite unfair. In fact, I remember when I was at the hu

Pay Equity committee  There are obviously two phases for legislation. One is getting something passed and the other is having a commission in place. I think it takes a little longer sometimes to put the organization into place, to find the expertise, and to ensure the appropriate leadership. I would s

Pay Equity committee  Right. What does that mean?

Pay Equity committee  Well, there may be claims by employers, notably, that they have done pay equity, and that therefore it's unfair to put more demands on them. That happened in Quebec. All that is needed there is a process for looking at what has actually happened. Do they have a plan in place? Is

Pay Equity committee  I think one of the difficulties we have in the federal sphere is that we have one extraordinarily large employer. We have a number of crown corporations, many of whom, I would say, are following good practices. I would humbly suggest the federal employer has fallen behind. The la

Pay Equity committee  I think I would support all, or almost all, of the Bilson recommendations. I think what you have to do.... Well, you don't have to do anything, but what you should consider is ensuring that equity applies equitably across the jurisdictions. It doesn't at the moment, because of th

Pay Equity committee  Yes, there are a lot of successes, particularly in Ontario and Quebec, where largely unionized employers have moved a great distance toward pay equity. I would characterize proxy as somewhat less successful in Ontario, in part because of the mathematical formula. For example, t

Pay Equity committee  I could start with proxy very briefly. I suspect there are not a lot of predominantly female organizations in the federal sphere that don't also have male comparators, but there will be some. There does need to be a process. For example in some small councils you find professio

Pay Equity committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. It's certainly an honour and a pleasure to be here, and thank you very much for the invitation. I've worked in pay equity in one way or another for about 30 years, and among other things, I've also worked directly for employers, for joint parties, union