Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The unions have always taken the stand that they believe in the policy of equal pay for work of equal value. When this government last year passed the Human Rights Act, we, as a government, decided in our Human Rights Act that we would have equal pay for the same or similar work. This legislature made that decision. We did that when we put it in the Human Rights Act. So the issue that the union has is really with the provisions in the Human Rights Act that we passed last year, not with this bill.

Even where there is a system of equal pay for work of equal value, it only applies for each employer as an entity. It doesn't apply across the board. So if they went to an equal pay for work of equal value regime, then the employer in Fort Simpson would have to pay his employees on a scheme that ensured that every employee that worked for him was paid relative to the other employees. Another employer down the road in Fort Providence would have to do the same thing for the employees that work for him, but it could be quite different than the one in Simpson. So it's not guaranteeing that everybody has exactly the same pay for the same work.

Who else has a regime which allows for equal pay for work of equal value? The only other ones are the larger provinces and the federal government. Ontario, Quebec and the federal government have it. But even where they have it, they have run into some difficulties in compliance because the scheme is so complicated it's beyond the ability of most employers to be able to do the job evaluations, assessments, ratings and so on and keep up with it. So the delinquency rate is high in the other jurisdictions. Thank you.