A government working group is meeting for the first time this week to suss out how to bridge the wage gap between men and women in Ontario — and the labour minister appears satisfied its approach will be nonpartisan, despite suggestions otherwise from the official opposition.

Minister Kevin Flynn on Monday shot down a call from Progressive Conservative MPP Laurie Scott, critic for women’s issues, to strike a special, “nonpartisan” legislative committee to sit this summer to study how to close the gender wage gap, including how to strengthen the Pay Equity Act.

Flynn said he wasn’t going to do that.

“Two days before the first meeting of a working group ... I really wonder where they (the PCs) have been and where they’re coming from. This is a little late to the party,” Flynn said after question period.

“The PCs just seem 20 years behind on this. We know what the issues are,” Flynn said. “To suddenly, at the eleventh hour, want to go and start a select committee or something like that — it just doesn’t smell right to me.”

The gender pay-gap working group was established last November and the first meeting, scheduled for Thursday, marks the second round of the Liberal government’s move to close the sometimes 14-per-cent- to 26-per-cent-wide chasm between men’s and women’s paycheques.

The working group will pick up where the ministry's gender wage gap steering committee left off, and follows its final report and recommendations made last summer following public consultation. The committee's top recommendation was to provide better child and elder care services, as women are historically primary caregivers. It also recommended clarifying the 30-year-old Pay Equity Act.

Scott had charged the government with dragging its feet on implementing the recommendations from its own committee in Monday's question period.

“As usual, this government loves to talk about equality, but when it comes to actually getting to the work that needs to be done, they are missing in action,” she said.

Scott also charged the meeting was “invite-only” and a “closed-door session,” when such “important issues” should be discussed publicly. She then called on the government to set up an all-party special committee to sit during the summer to address the pay gap.

“It’s time for this government to do what’s right for women. I call on the government to work with all parties in this legislature,” Scott said.

Flynn has said the first report from the steering committee was more about defining the parameters of pay discrepancies, while the latest panel is tasked with finding technical, legal and regulatory ways to close the gap.

He added he expects the working group’s reports will eventually be made public.

The plan to close the gender pay gap is expected to be completed by the spring of 2018, and the working group is expected to meet regularly throughout the year. Thursday's meeting is slated for 9 a.m., at the Ministry of Labour offices on University Avenue in Toronto.

A government release last fall said the new working group would include several relevant stakeholders, including the Equal Pay Coalition, Ontario Federation of Labour, Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Catalyst Canada, Toronto Board of Trade and the Human Resources Professionals Association, among others.

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‘Late to the party’: Labour minister shoots down PC MPP’s call for ‘nonpartisan’ gender pay gap committee

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