Thank you. Most frameworks for equal pay for work of equal value and pay equity also want to ensure that a variety of systems that exist between employers and employees are put into place for good reason and are not considered to be discriminatory. This list is similar to what you would find within the Canadian Human Rights Act in the equal wages guidelines. The purpose is that most employers have a seniority system where, as employees become more experienced in the work that they do, they progress from one step to another. It may be in an organization that at a particular period of time you may have more men in an organization that are, for example, at step five and more women at step three and the goal is to ensure that in a seniority system such as that, where the progression and the idea of having a seniority system where over time you get more experience and are paid more, the system is available to everybody and it's not discriminatory in the way that it works, that it will not be considered discriminatory that in the course of that seniority system, men and women receive different compensation.

Similarly, if you look at something like compensation based on regional differences and cost of living, it's also common for employers to look at issues like cost of living and provide additional compensation, for example, in some of our remote communities where the cost of living is higher. Again, if it happens that there are more men living in a higher cost community and more women living in a lower cost community, that the differences between their wages, because they reflect differences, a cost of living would not be discriminatory. These are common in terms of the defences or different reasons for differences between compensation for men and women and it is also important to understand that when a complaint is made, these factors may still be reviewed but these are the most common reasons that you wouldn't find a system to be discriminatory. Thank you.