Pay equity promise not kept, Liberals admit

Liberal Leader Brian Gallant is acknowledging that his government hasn't kept the promise it made on pay equity in the 2014 election campaign.

The government quietly acknowledged in a document earlier this year that it had given a pass to some private-sector companies that would have been covered by the 2014 commitment.

"I'll be the first to say we have not been as successful as we'd like," Gallant said Tuesday during a campaign announcement in Fredericton.

The Liberals promised in 2014 to use government's contracting and granting power to force larger private-sector companies to put pay-equity plans in place.

Companies with 50 or more employees awarded a tender or receiving a government subsidy would have to "implement pay equity plans," the campaign platform said.

But the rules brought in by Gallant's government in June apply to companies with 50 or more workers that are subsidized under one program only — the One Job Pledge — or that are awarded contracts worth more than $1 million.

Planning vs. implementing

Companies getting One Job Pledge money must now only "complete" a pay-equity plan and take part in training. There is no mention of having to "implement" the plan.

And companies winning contracts aren't even required to complete a plan. All they have to do is the training.

"Government quietly announced that this was the new requirement, which was not the full scope of the platform commitment they had made," said Beth Lyons, head of the New Brunswick Women's Council.

The government said 145 companies had gone through training as part of a pilot program. Lyons said the pilot program "is not the full scope of the commitment, even if the pilot program is a success."

She also said details of the pilot program were not available.

"What we're interested in is seeing a little more information. How many of them have also been required to do pay equity implementation plans? What kind of support is being offered to them to be sure the implementation plans are in effect, for instance?"

Johanne Perron of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity said Gallant's admission that the Liberals had fallen short was not a surprise.

"The facts are there," she said. "I'm not surprised he's admitting it."

Details on the way

At the launch of his campaign bus tour Aug. 19, which focused on women's issues, Gallant promised "various innovative initiatives" to promote pay equity if he's elected to a second four-year term.

He said Tuesday more detail is coming later in the campaign.

Perron said she's hoping Gallant's admission "will be an occasion to look at legislating the private sector as a whole."

Lyons also supports that idea.

"We need a law for the private sector. This is a human rights issue. It's great that we're seeing progress but we haven't gone far enough."

Progress on pay equity is a perpetual campaign promise to women voters, though governments have shied away from imposing strict legal requirements on private-sector companies.

Public-sector employers, funded or owned by government, have been easier to influence. Gallant said Tuesday all provincial Crown corporations will have implemented pay equity by this December.

NDP, Greens would require pay equity

Only the Green Party and the NDP support legislation to force pay equity on the private sector.

NDP Leader Jennifer McKenzie called it "a very serious issue" and said her party would create a new government entity to enforce it if that were needed.

Fredericton North PC candidate Jill Green, a business owner, said she's not sure more regulations should be imposed on private-sector companies. She said New Brunswick is already "one of the hardest places in Canada to do business."

"We'd have to look at the complete package," she said. "There's so much red tape and tax issues around businesses that one thing can cause a ripple effect that's unintended."