Hon. Rebecca Patterson: Thank you, minister. I would like to ask a follow-up question concerning the Pay Equity Act.

We know that certain people are impacted by pay equity more than others, and they tend to be those working at lower rates of pay. Those particular rates of pay tend to be dominated by equity-seeking groups, and they also live very precariously because of it.

Hearing that it will take quite a period of time to get through at least the 4,600 requests — plus more — that will come in from employers, and recognizing that a plan must be built before the pay is going to be challenged or made equal, is there going to be any priority given in the assessment process to employers who have groups that are more traditionally in the lower end of the range and are more greatly composed of other equity-seeking groups?

Hon. Rebecca Patterson: Minister, I would like to ask you a question about the Pay Equity Act. We know that employers have until September 3, 2024, to publish their pay equity plans under this act. This means that about 4,600 employers have less than a year now to actually put these plans in place.

In her first annual report released last August, the Pay Equity Commissioner noticed that requests from employers seeking more guidance have been steadily increasing throughout the year.

Given the commissioner’s comments, are you confident that employers have sufficient time to develop comprehensive pay equity plans, especially given the pandemic-related interruptions since the act came into effect and given that decent work requires decent pay?