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Welcome, bienvenue et bonsoir,
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered this evening on the traditional
territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for their
centuries-long contributions to our great province.
We are also gathered to mark the 30th anniversary year of pay equity in Ontario! We have a
number of distinguished guests here this evening that I would like to recognize at the outset.
Firstly, we are indeed privileged to welcome Her Honour, The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario,
The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell. Please accept our sincere thanks for joining us!
I am also pleased to acknowledge these individuals who have accepted our invitation and who
either are in the room or will be arriving at some point in the evening:
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Secretary of the Cabinet, Steve Orsini
Chancellor of York University, Greg Sorbara
Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues,
MPP Nathalie Des Rosiers
Progressive Conservative Party Critic for Women’s Issues, MPP Laurie
Scott
NDP Critic for various portfolios, MPP Cheri DiNovo
And I see my colleagues here:
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From the Social Justice Tribunals, Executive Chair Michael Gottheil
From the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal, current Chair Mary Anne
McKellar
We thought hard about how we were going to mark this seminal year in our history – our 30th.
We have been planning a series of events and activities that will take place over the course of
2017 that will provide opportunities for active engagement and input.
This evening, to launch the anniversary year, our focus is to remember the people and the
circumstances that led us to this moment in time, to reconnect with each other and re-engage
on women’s economic empowerment, closing the gender wage gap and strengthening pay
equity.
All of you here tonight have played or will play a role in the on-going quest for women's
economic equality. The journey for many of you has been a long one, and for others, it may be
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just beginning. What we know is that equal pay and pay equity run through this dialogue in key
ways.
The challenge for all of us now, as we move forward together, is to determine how that role
could be better defined. How your work and our work and your efforts and our efforts will inform
the future so that progress continues. Together we must work towards a society where men
and women in Ontario, of whatever race or origin, are truly equal economic and social partners.
The People
I want to start the evening by acknowledging the many people who have participated in the
women’s economic equality journey. Their dedication, commitment and support for gender
equality has been long-standing and stellar. We stand on the shoulders of the many advocates
and leaders who pushed…and wrote songs….and made recommendations…and
marched….and lobbied….and argued, some loudly and some quietly…and who continue to do
so today in different forums and in different ways. Some of these amazing individuals from
various organizations are here tonight. Please wave it you hear your name mentioned!
While there are countless heroines and heroes who have come before us, let’s start with the
Ontario Committee on the Status of Women, an organization dedicated to ensuring that the
recommendations of the 1970 Report on the Status of Women were implemented in Ontario.
You may recognize many of their names as they have appeared in different roles and at
different times, always committed to the principles of women’s economic equality:
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Brigid O’Reilly, Wendy Cuthbertson, Laurell Ritchie, Catherine Devlin,
Cathleen Morrison, Janet Skelton, Judith Davidson-Palmer, Lynn
McDonald, Lynn Spink
Since the 1930s the Business and Professional Women’s Clubs of Ontario have worked to
encourage equal status for women in economic, civil and political life; to promote the interests of
business and professional women; to encourage education and occupational training for girls
and women. They were and are a key voice for pay equity. Tonight they are represented by:
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Doris Hall, Linda Davis, Sheila Crook, Carole Orchard
We must also be cognizant of the significant role played by the union movement. Unions
throughout history have advocated for women’s rights. Many of the protections we enjoy today
are the product of their advocacy. There are many unions represented here and their members
fought long and hard, both within the union movement and outside of it for women’s equality. I
mention a few of them tonight:
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From the Ontario Federation of Labour, Carrol Anne Sceviour
From CUPE, Irene Harris and Fred Hahn
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From OPSEU, Ann Wallace and Edie Strachan
From SEIU, Sharleen Stewart
I have had occasion to read some of the early submissions from all of these organizations that
address universal childcare, robust enforcement of equal pay for equal work and maternity
leave. As far back as 1973 these organizations spoke of the need for specific pay equity
legislation with requirements for reporting and an independent Commission to educate and
enforce.
Next, we need to acknowledge the incredible work done by academics whose research and
critical analysis made this difficult concept of comparing apples and oranges possible:
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from Pat Armstrong, Nan Weiner, Morley Gunderson, Jan Kainer, to the
recent recipients of the PEO’s grant program, Kendra Coulter, Julie
Maher, Tammy Schirle, Paul Millar to name but a few.
And we need to recognize the work of those who are contributing to the wider dialogue around
women and work:
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From Ryerson’s Diversity Institute, its founder, Wendy Cukier
From the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Armine Yalnizyan
From Catalyst Canada, Vandana Juneja
From Lean In Canada, Sarah Kwan
From the newly formed Institute for Gender and the Economy at Rotman,
its founder, Sarah Kaplan
Sheila Crook, Canada’s UN Women Global Champion for Women’s
Economic Empowerment and
Almas Jiwani, President of the UN Women National Committee in
Canada
Equal Pay Coalition
I have left the obvious, and likely the most influential, until last.
One cannot talk about equal pay for work of equal value in Ontario without acknowledging the
work of the Equal Pay Coalition, under the committed leadership of Mary Cornish.
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The Coalition, made up of over 30 organizations has been the guiding force from the early days
to today, holding everyone’s feet to the fire and ensuring that the dialogue around equal pay,
pay equity and gender wage gap continued even when no one appeared to be listening.
Many individuals have come and gone – the one constant has been Mary Cornish who is often
called the “mother of pay equity”. Last year, Mary was appointed to the Order of Canada to
recognize her leadership in advancing pay equity and for her long-standing commitment to
social justice. Tonight I would like for you to join me in acknowledging Mary’s efforts and
dedication. We have recently learned that Mary has turned over the leadership of Coalition to
others – Faye Faraday and Jan Borowy – so the work of the Coalition in advocating for women’s
economic rights will continue.
Unfortunately, I do not have sufficient time this evening to list all of the amazing individuals in
this room and those who wanted to be here – and for this I apologize – but I do hope that you
will take time over the course of the evening to reconnect with old colleagues and meet new
ones.
The Circumstances
Let’s now turn to the circumstances 30 years ago or more that produced one of the most
innovative pieces of legislation of its time.
The late 70s and early 80s in Ontario were tumultuous times – socially, economically and
politically. The gender wage gap and pay equity were hot issues that became front and centre
in the news, in part due to the continuous efforts of the many individuals in this room.
Legislative initiatives around pay equity – as a means of addressing the undervaluation of
women’s work – commenced with an NDP private members bill in 1979 but it would take seven
more years and several attempts before success was achieved.
Because of a unique set of political circumstances, the most expanded version of many
legislative attempts – Bill 154, called the Pay Equity Act, 1986 – passed with all party support in
1987. This passage was not without controversy and angst amongst its supporters and
detractors… and not without nasty exchanges and accusations from the players of the day.
Let me read to you a small excerpt from the record of the Ontario Debates during the 3rd reading
of the Bill on June 15th 1987. Here are the words of the Attorney General, the late Ian Scott:
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Let me just say that if a resident of my constituency came here on this great day
to hear this debate, I believe he or she would be surprised at the form the debate
takes and would have a number of questions to ask me about it.
The first thing he or she would say is: "Why is it that the members all make selfserving statements designed to show how brilliant, bright and intelligent they are,
while at the same time denying those qualities of conscience and intelligence to
others? Why is it that those who say the legislation is terrible will stand up in the
end to vote for it? Why is it that legislation that is universally condemned by a
majority of the House will pass unanimously?" The answer is that this is the
political process. The political process achieves a significant end game on this
particular occasion.
He went on to thank the many people who worked hard for the bill and the principles upon which
the bill was based, acknowledging the members from all three parties: Susan Fish from the
Progressive Conservative Party, Evelyn Gigantes from the NDP and his colleagues in the
Liberal Party, Elinor Caplan and Chris Ward, who is here tonight.
He also mentioned with gratitude, the work of the Ontario Women’s Directorate under the
leadership of Glenna Carr and Elaine Todres, both of whom are also here.
And he paid tribute to the range of women's organizations across Ontario, from the three
member Consultation Panel on Pay Equity (one of whom is here tonight – David Clark), to the
Equal Pay Coalition and Mary Cornish.
In bringing forward his motion for a vote on the bill he said:
We have made an important and significant start. We have undertaken a
significant social change. We are doing something that is right and just and
important for women, and I believe we are doing it in a way that will permit
Ontario's economy to thrive and prosper and create jobs.
Tasked with implementing this unique piece of legislation – that really had no precedent in the
world – were the various Ministers of Labour under whose bailiwick the Act and the newly
formed Pay Equity Commission resided. Two of those four Ministers are here tonight, Greg
Sorbara and Bill Wrye.
Starting up the Pay Equity Office and the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal was also a monumental
task. The work done during the late 1980s and early 1990s by individuals like Brigid O’Reilly
(my predecessor), Beth Symes (the first Tribunal Chair), Wendy Cuthbertson and Murray Lapp
(former Directors) was innovative, creative, informative. The material produced at the Office
and the jurisprudence coming from the Tribunal continues to be used and cited by jurisdictions
across the world.
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But circumstances change. There is a natural ebb and flow in economies and social conditions
and, as elsewhere, attention turned away from “women’s issues” to the point where it became
difficult to continue the necessary dialogue and so progress stalled. Advocates moved on to
other priorities, governments had different views on issues, women moved away from the
feminism construct of those early times.
But times they are a’changin again.
It was former President Obama, whose first act in office was to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay
Act, that brought focus back to women’s economic issues, albeit in a much different social and
political context.
We stand today, with a female Premier in Ontario and a feminist Prime Minister of Canada.
Both have indicated a commitment to women’s economic equality and both have acknowledged
the very real contribution made by pay equity and equal pay to this issue.
Shortly, you will hear from Minister Flynn, Ontario’s Minister of Labour, who is charged with the
development of a gender wage gap strategy. I will let him fill you in on how this file will be
moving forward. I am excited and hopeful to hear what he has to say.
Before he arrives I would like to speak a bit about work that has been done around the Gender
Wage Gap.
In April of 2015, I and three others – Linda Davis from BPW, Professor Singh from York
University and Nancy Austin, former OHRC director, were tasked with studying the causes for
the gender wage gap, consulting with stakeholders and communities about its impact and
conducting research around solutions being initiated in other jurisdictions with a view to making
recommendations that would lead to a gender wage gap strategy. The Background Paper, the
summary of the consultations and our Final Report are all available for you to review and I
encourage you to do so. Let me share some key personal observations from that process:
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The gender wage gap has gradually narrowed over time but its trajectory
in Ontario has been jagged and slow
there is a dearth of real-time statistics, making analysis and outcome
measurements difficult
the unequal distribution of home responsibilities, coupled with the lack of
sufficient resources for childcare and elder care continue to be significant
barriers for women to advance economically
It was disheartening to hear anecdotes and stories in virtually every
setting and across many sectors and industries about misogynist
behaviours that go unchecked in workplaces, demonstrating that
discrimination and bias about men’s and women’s roles at home and at
work are still very much in play.
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Finally, laws like pay equity, equal pay for equal work and human rights
are absolutely key to set standards and expectations but remain difficult
to both access and comply with.
Ontario is not alone in this. The millions of participants in last weekend’s Women’s March
across the world, including Canada, are testament to the fact that vigilance and commitment are
important to ensure that progress is made and maintained on issues of gender equality.
The Pay Equity Commission is now a much smaller organization than it was at its inception.
Our primary focus is on monitoring employers for compliance and engaging as much as
possible in a wider dialogue on pay equity and women and work. We continue to look at
creative ways in which we can meet our mandate within constraints and we are always looking
for partnership opportunities for education, outreach and research. In these last few years, we
have developed relationships with the HRPA, Ryerson’s CLMR, Catalyst Canada, Rotman’s
Gender and the Economy Institute, to name a few. We take every opportunity to make
submissions when women and work issues are being contemplated. To this end I invite you to
visit our display table which outlines some of our work over the last few years.
The history of creating a government institution to enforce pay equity must not be forgotten. We
are assembling a reading room that will be available to the public about the Ontario experience.
We are very interested in hearing about your pay equity experiences, past and present, to add
to our collection. Please pick up a card that tells you how to get hold of our office. At the end
of this year we would like to publish a compendium of stories about the history of pay equity.
We hope to create an archive and living history to inform. It is important to remember the
people and the circumstances that led us to this moment in time. It is important to reconnect
and re-engage on women’s economic empowerment, closing the gender wage gap and
strengthening pay equity. We hope the new Ursula Franklin Pay Equity Reading Room, to be
opened in February with her family in attendance, will serve the cause, by helping to continue
the necessary conversations.
Ontario has a tremendous opportunity to once again take the lead on women’s economic issues
– a lead evidenced 30 years ago with the introduction of the Pay Equity Act in 1987. The
individuals and legislators knew, back then, that the Act was not the end but the beginning of a
solution to address women’s economic inequality.
There is, still much work to be done. So I invite you to connect and engage with us as we move
forward over the next year to think about the role that equal pay, pay equity, and the Pay Equity
Commission, can play in this broader women’s economic empowerment framework.
Thank you for your kind attention and for taking time out of your busy schedules to celebrate
with us. I will now turn the podium over to Minister Flynn.
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END
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