Mr. Andrew Saxton (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her speech.

There is no about-face here, and I hope that I will provide clarity on this issue.

The Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act was tabled as part of the government's Budget Implementation Act, 2009 on February 6 and it received royal assent on March 12. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the members who supported the legislation.

This act replaces an adversarial complaints-based system with a collaborative one as part of the collective bargaining process.

Our government respects the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. That is why we have acted to ensure a more modern and collaborative approach to equitable compensation in the federal public service. Our approach brings much needed reform to our complaint-based pay equity regime, which has proved to be a lengthy, costly and adversarial process, a process that does not serve employees or employers well.

Our government is proud to be leading the way when it comes to recruitment and compensation of employees.

We should be especially proud of the progress toward gender balance in the public services, particularly within the senior ranks. It is worth noting that back in 1983 fewer than 5% of women were in senior management. Today, women are approaching half of the senior and executive ranks of the federal public service. They are not only taking the top jobs, but their representation in many groups has also increased dramatically over the years.

Today's public service provides women and men with equal access to all positions and identical wages within the same groups and levels. I am proud of the example we are setting for both private and public sector organizations around the world.

Given this situation and given the need to ensure the strides women have made in the federal public sector continue to be maintained, we have put in place a more modern approach to pay equity from public service employees. We need to put an end to the long and drawn out court cases of the past.

Before this act, public service employers and unions were not required to take pay equity issues into account during wage setting. The issues were raised only when complaints were made. Many Canadians would be surprised to know that the last court case on pay equity concluded in 1999, at a cost of millions of dollars to taxpayers, a settlement that took over 15 years to achieve.

Public service employees deserve better. Taxpayers deserve better. This has clearly been a case of justice delayed being justice denied. That is no longer acceptable.

The new system will address any unfairness in women's wages and deal with it straight up, instead of allowing a settlement to drag on in the courts. It will make employers and bargaining agents jointly accountable for setting fair wages. It will ensure these decisions are made at the time of collective bargaining for unionized employees. It will impose a rigorous process to ensure employers address pay equity in a timely way for non-unionized employees.

The legislation ensures that such prolonged court cases become a thing of the past. This is about doing the right thing, finally, for Canadian women. Our government makes no apologies for taking long overdue steps to protect the rights of women to fair and equitable pay.

Mr. Andrew Saxton

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague knows the current system is broken. It does not work for women and it does not work for the government. When it takes 15 to 20 years to settle disputes, it does not take much to see that it is a lengthy, costly and adversarial process, which does not serve anyone well.

We want to correct this problem by improving upon the existing models of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba and, I might add, along the lines of what an independent task force, appointed by the previous Liberal government, recommended.

I do not understand why my hon. colleague cannot see how a proactive system will be far better than a reactive one. Justice delayed is justice denied.

Mr. Andrew Saxton (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are not the ones to lecture us on accountability.

I am proud to say that much work has been done by our government over the past few weeks. A substantial amount of money has already been identified from this fund for economic stimulus initiatives outlined in our economic action plan.

I expect the member will see announcements by my colleagues over the coming weeks and I would encourage her again to monitor our website.

We do not need more roadblocks. We need more roads built.

Mr. Andrew Saxton (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, I am proud to say that much work has been done in the past few weeks by the government in getting these funds out. We are negotiating with the provinces and municipalities to make sure that these funds go to the places where they are needed most to create jobs and stimulate our economy during these difficult economic times.

Mr. Andrew Saxton (Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, our government is taking unprecedented action to stimulate our economy and to protect Canadians during these difficult economic times. There will be ample information about how this money is spent through our quarterly reports to Parliament, a full accounting of spending in supplementary estimates, reports from the Auditor General and on our action plan website, actionplan.gc.ca. If the hon. member has not already been there, she should visit the website.

We are cutting red tape. The opposition should do the same.