SRSR Committee Report

Supplementary Report of His Majesty’s Official Opposition

The Conservative Party of Canada

Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner, PC, MP for Calgary Nose Hill

Corey Tochor, MP for Saskatoon—University

Gerald Soroka, MP for Yellowhead

Ben Lobb MP for Huron—Bruce

Introduction

Conservatives on this committee strongly believe that if you work hard, you should be able to get ahead, no matter who you are or who you love. Pay should be evaluated on merit, full stop. 

This dissenting report provides clarity on several key points that were not addressed or adequately captured by the report and additional recommendations to address the same.

Supplementary Recommendation 1: The federal government must respect provincial jurisdiction as it pertains to removing barriers to pay equity at Canadian post secondary institutions.

Conservative members feel the report did not adequately emphasize this principle, and may even violate it in some regard.

The issue of pay equity is legislatively complex, as it touches upon provincial jurisdiction. To address this tension, it is vital, as noted by one witness in Committee, “to think about what the levers are”. In other words, the Committee must reflect on which actions fall into the purview of the federal government, and which are firmly grounded in provincial jurisdiction. One important distinction is how funding for education can overlap with the administration of education itself, as stated: “post-secondary education is a provincial matter, but funding for research is a federal matter through the tri-council and through their various programs like the CRC program, the granting council programs and the Canada excellence research chairs program”. 

When posing questions, Conservative members asked the Committee’s witnesses to maintain the scope of legislative influence to the federal level, so as to not encroach on the provincial policy arena. When witnesses proposed recommendations not related to the federal government’s purview, Conservative members brought back the discussion to what federal legislation can do to avoid overstepping on provincial jurisdiction. However, not enough time was dedicated to this consideration. 

For instance, MP Michelle Rempel Garner made reference to a case in which Québec’s minister of education expressed concerns about the federal Canada Research Chair program’s approach to selection “on the basis of criteria that are not related to competence”. This example sheds light on an important component of federal-provincial dynamics, yet there was not enough time for the witnesses to explore it in depth. 

Conservatives urge the Committee to ensure we do not infringe on the jurisdiction of the provinces and are working collaboratively with our provincial counterparts.

Supplementary Recommendation 2:  The federal government should recognize that much of the responsibility for removing barriers to pay equity in post secondary institutions falls to the institutions themselves.

The committee heard often about the responsibility of universities to act on this issue, yet Conservative members felt that this principle was not adequately reflected in the end report. An example occurred when MP Michelle Rempel Garner questioned Dr. Susan Prentice, who suggested that the university administration could do more to ensure pay equity between men and women. She discussed that Canadian Universities should be required to track more closely and, through a database, what they are paying their staff and allow the government access to it. She said that: 

“Institutional autonomy needs respecting, there also needs to be accountability. Universities themselves, if required to report externally, will pay more attention internally.”⁷ 

Dr. Prentice’s point is crucial as she acknowledges that the universities will ultimately be the ones to fix the issue of pay equity and stresses their autonomy. Further, many witnesses called on the universities themselves to collect more data on pay equity for women and other marginalized groups to allow a broader understanding of the situation. Dr. Joy Johnson says Simon Fraser University is working hard to collect more data that will enable their campus to identify diversity objectives and ensure pay equity.⁸ It was often a consensus that universities need to complete further research and collect further data to ensure that the corrective steps they will take will ensure equity in pay for everyone within their employment. 

Supplementary Recommendation 3: The federal government must ensure that federally managed research granting programs do not enable discriminatory hiring practices.

In response to a high profile case of applicants being discriminated against based on the requirements in a federally funded Canada Research Chair job posting, Quebec’s national assembly passed a motion that both expressed a commitment to merit-based hiring on university campuses and rejected the imposition of racial or gender quotas by the federal government.

Conservative members of the committee agree with the principle of this motion, and believe that pay equity should be achieved by removing barriers that prevent the achievement of that goal, not by instituting new discriminatory hiring practices.