Of all the measures contained in C-10, the changes to pay-equity legislation are probably the hardest to accept:
The choice of words in the new act is the most worrisome. The act emphasizes that "equitable compensation" be determined in large part by market forces—the same market forces that have long de-valued women's work of equal value and which led to the implementation of pay equity.
In the name of getting funds to all those "shovel ready" projects, I suppose something had to give. The Tories had to be allowed a few small bore, ideology based legislative items to show to their base. Nevertheless, the Ignatieff Liberals come out looking bad on this to anyone familiar enough and obsessed enough with the issue to think seriously about how the changes are likely to play out. I would like to think that there is a strategy out there through which the party plans to stop these changes from becoming law, or repeal them once in office, or some damn thing.
So far, though, there appears to be nothing. Very disappointing.
Maybe, they will hash these things out in committee.
ReplyDeleteGiven how disappointing the libs have been with the budget publicly, I'm not expecting much. Iggy's budget "deal" of getting periodic performance reports is a joke. It's what we're entitled to without negotiation, and Harper will likwly make a PR fanfare out of every one.
While some libs are positively dazed with love over Iggy's annointment and standing in the polls, some of us are looking for actual policy progress.
This whole thing is starting to hint of what Ontario got when McGuinty got in: Not-as-bad-as-Harris/Eves.
If the pay equity measures in Bill C-10 pass, this will be a huge step backwards for Canada.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Chretien, from his speech at the last LPC leadership convention, "we are up against a party that has no respect for women's rights".
At that point, Harper had gutted some of SWC funding. He would follow that with changing their mandate to remove the word equality. He has also stacked the Reproductive Health panel with stalwart social conservatives. And now we have this to contend with.
This is not just a harmless policy ploy to placate the more extreme conservatives in their base. This is detrimental to the lives of women and the welfare of many families.