Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I do agree with the analogy presented by the Minister of fair minded, level heads and your credit cards and your mortgage. That has always been my point on this issue, Mr. Chairman. That after ten years of dragging this through the courts, that it was never addressed properly by the 12th or the 11th Assembly. Mr. Todd is stuck with a situation, a fait accompli, as it were, where we lost our last challenge in court and now we had to sit at the negotiating table. Mr. Todd has tried to work out an arrangement at the table, and rightfully so. Mr. Chairman, when we look at the employees, we are looking at 98 percent being the female employee in mostly clerical and administrative positions who have been underpaid based on their classification in a gender neutral environment. Basically, what that means, Mr. Chairman, is that, indeed, a woman doing the same job as a man was being paid less than a man. There is no one in this House who would say that was fair. We went to court and we lost the case. Sometimes I feel there is a revision of history going on. I do not know what the amount is that would be retroactive and owed to 1,000 employees, 600 employees, 100 employees. It is very difficult to ask the appropriate questions on sustainability and affordability. However, after saying that Mr. Chairman, the Minister of Finance must have a figure in mind, and it is not fair for him to say what that figure is because they are in negotiations. All I am saying, Mr. Chairman, is I agree with the Minister that we had to pay the bill, like a Visa bill or a mortgage bill. It does not matter to me if that person is living in the territories or now has left. To me, that is a red herring. We still owe a debt. What the affordability factor is, is something that has to be played out. If the territorial government does not have the ability to pay the bill as presented, I would ask the Minister, you know, would the federal government, who is the 80 percent funder of this government, step in and help us out on that bill because we all know, and as the Minister of Finance knows, the federal government is also in the case now, before the courts, of their $1 billion pay equity situation. I think that a fair minded person like Mr. Todd would probably have already approached the subject with our Finance Minister. All I am saying is that we do not have the fiscal ability to pay. We have to pay something. Has he looked at other alternatives like asking the federal government for help here because as Mr. Todd knows, when he fought in the courts as the territorial government, we were ruled that we did not have jurisdiction that, indeed, human rights laws for Canada fell into place and that is why we lost our court case? If that is the case, I would see federal regulations having to incur us in that debt. So, I would ask the Minister, has he looked and talked to the Department of Finance about this issue and indeed, how much money are we looking at? You heard $70 and $80 million. I do not expect the Minister to tell me because he has a bargaining position to take. So my question to the Minister is that indeed we have a debt to pay. He has acknowledged that because we are at the negotiating table because we lost the last court case. So has he looked at other avenues to pay out this money? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Edward Picco on Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on January 26th, 1998. See this statement in context.
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
January 25th, 1998
Page 324
Edward Picco Iqaluit
See context to find out what was said next.