Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, Members spoke about the meeting of the Union of Workers representatives. I, also, attended that meeting. We had our presentation from Jackie Simpson, the President; Ben MacDonald, as well as, Margaret Bertulli. A number of areas were discussed, but one I would like to make a little more detailed reference to and that is the question of, is the proposed job evaluation plan, in fact, gender neutral? I would like to put forward the information that was provided for us today at this meeting. The government says, yes, it is gender neutral. The union disagrees with that. The question, of course, becomes, how do we get out of that quandary? The union has suggested a three-member panel. The government says, that is a delay tactic by the union. The government also says that we need a made-in-the-north solution. The union replies that the parties have, through the three-member panel, 20 hours to consider this and one week in which to come to some resolution on it. With regard to the made- in-the-north the government argument uses, that is contradictory unto itself because the government has gone south for its legal counsel to represent them on the pay equity issue.
The implementation of the proposed job evaluation plan, the union is convinced because the plan is not gender neutral that the union could be held jointly liable for the deficiencies especially if it has stated that it knows that it is not bias-free. They do not have the same liability, Mr. Speaker, with the current plan. They feel the pay equity issue should not be on the bargaining table. It should be taken off. There were also discussion and clarification on the briefing session that had been scheduled for March 30th to April 3rd which was cancelled.
The issues in all of this, Mr. Speaker, are complex and there are two sides to this story. The union presented us with their side of the story today. We have had briefings from papers and from the government's side. We need to get on with resolving this issue. Many of our employees are affected by it and we do not need a summer of undecidedness. Thank you.
--Applause