QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Labour
Employment Equity Act
February 9, 2023
Minister O’Regan, in your mandate letter, the Prime Minister asked that you work with your cabinet colleagues to accelerate the review and improve the Employment Equity Act in a timely manner. Last spring, I asked government officials appearing before our National Finance Committee for an update on the work of the task force undertaking this review. We were told then that consultations were under way with the public service, the federally regulated private sector and separate employers.
Officials confirmed they would be gathering all this information in the coming weeks, that the chief human resources officer would report back to the task force on May 26 and that a report is due next fall. Minister, when can we expect to see the report and the results of this review of Canada’s employment equity framework?
Thank you, senator, for the question.
Here is some background. We have been working for some time now to strengthen the legislative framework to make workplaces more inclusive and to promote equality through proactive pay equity legislation, pay transparency and accessibility legislation. We also, as you said, launched an independent task force to conduct the most extensive review of the act that we’ve seen since 1986.
The task force completed its consultations with stakeholders, which included collecting statistical information and hearing about the lived experiences of many groups, including visible minorities, women and persons with disabilities. They will submit the report in the spring — this spring. It will include concrete, independent and evidence-based recommendations on how we can modernize the act.
