I want to talk about women workers in this province. I want to know if you’ve heard the expression “pinkwashing.” Literally what that means is a government or a branding company puts the smallest thing out there, some kind of frivolous thing, but when you look behind it there’s nothing of substance. I would say that this bill is nothing but pinkwashing. Because you know what? Period products and clean washrooms are not going to cut it when women do not earn what men earn in this province.

We had a bill here—Lydia’s Law—that the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington chose to discharge to committee so we couldn’t debate.

So my question to you is, do you think the women of Ontario are going to be swayed by clean washrooms when they do nothing to support women with real change?

I appreciate you raising the point that I’ve been talking about: pinkwashing, where this government just puts a big headline out there that they’re working for women, and when you look at the substance of the bill, it is not there. We see time and time again that this is a government that has not only ignored women’s voices with Lydia’s Law—we see that they’re shutting out their voices from this Legislature—but they’re proactively working against women in the workplace.

Bill 124 froze the wages primarily of women workers. There’s a charter right challenge for women education workers. There were the midwives, for heaven’s sakes; they fought the midwives in court. And now we see gender-based violence and interval/transition workers are the lowest paid in the province. So not only do you shut out the voices of sexual assault survivors with Lydia’s Law; you’re shutting out the voices of women who work in these centres.

Do you see anything in this bill of substance that addresses the real needs of women working in this province?