Women and Gender Equity Minister Lela Evans says the gender wage gap in Newfoundland and Labrador is “unacceptable,” and government intends to keep promises they made about pay equity in their Blue Book.

Evans was responding to a recent report form the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which found that the wage gap in Atlantic Canada is among the highest in the country.

She says the former Liberal administration enacted the Pay Equity and Pay Transparency Act in 2022 but “failed to finish the job.”

She says key provisions were never brought into force, regulations were never drafted, and the legislation did not cover those in the private sector.

As well, Evans states that the Liberals announced a law, but “left behind an incomplete framework that did not deliver the change women were promised.”

She stresses that fully implementing pay equity and pay transparency requires a lot of detailed work, which they are doing in order to establish “a stronger and more effective framework.”

Pointing to commitments in the PC election platform to replace the existing legislation and enact pay equity, Evans says they intend on doing that.