Feds also launching two new funding programs targeting harassment prevision, equity barriers
The federal government has announced upgrades to its workplace pay gap transparency platform and opened calls for proposals under two new workplace equity funding programs, signalling an emphasis on practical tools alongside the legislative frameworks already in place.
Equi'Vision is the federal government's data visualization platform that publishes pay and representation gap information for federally regulated private-sector employers with 100 or more employees. The platform covers the four designated groups under the Employment Equity Act: women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities.
The upgrade will add an AI-powered virtual assistant designed to make it easier for employers and workers to identify pay and representation gaps and access information about how to address them, the government stated. The assistant is intended to lower the barrier to entry for organizations navigating what can be a complex data set.
Equi'Vision currently allows users to search for employer-level data by organization, sector, and location, and displays multiple data types — including mean and median hourly wage gaps, bonus pay gaps, overtime pay gaps, and representation rates — broken down by employment status and occupational group. The government describes the platform as a diagnostic tool: data showing gaps in a particular employer's workforce may point to employment barriers in areas such as hiring practices, starting salary negotiations, or promotion processes.
The Labour Program publishes the data annually, once it has confirmed that all employer annual employment equity reports have been submitted.
Two new funding programs
Alongside the platform upgrade, the government announced it has launched calls for proposals for two separate funding programs, developed in collaboration with Impact Canada at the Privy Council Office.
The first, Workplace Opportunities: Removing Barriers to Equity, is directed at projects that address systemic barriers faced by equity-deserving groups in the workplace. The second, the Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Fund, targets initiatives aimed at making workplaces safer and more respectful.
Both programs are described by the government as oriented toward innovative, results-driven projects. Further details on timelines and funding envelopes were not included in Thursday's statement.
In conjunction with International Equal Pay Day, Ottawa emphasized new tools and programs within a larger set of federal equity commitments. The government pointed to the Employment Equity Act and the Pay Equity Act as the legislative backbone of its approach, noting that together the two laws require federally regulated employers to proactively build diverse workforces and ensure equal pay for work of equal value.
The statement also referenced investment in Women and Gender Equality Canada's Women's Program — described as $382.5 million over five years, with $76.5 million ongoing beginning in 2026–27 — as well as the 2023 Women's Economic and Leadership Opportunities Fund, through which more than 160 organizations received approximately $100 million to support women's participation in economic and leadership opportunities.
"Canada is strongest when everyone has the opportunity to contribute and succeed," the ministers said in their joint statement. "While obstacles remain, we have an opportunity to continue building workplaces where every woman has the chance to succeed."
The ministers acknowledged that barriers are not experienced uniformly. "Lasting progress means making sure no one is left behind," the statement read. "That means recognizing that barriers are not experienced equally and that some women continue to face greater challenges than others."
Mandatory reporting of pay equity
The statements come as federally regulated employers – including banks, telecommunications firms, and air and rail carriers – approach their first mandatory reporting cycle under the Act, which applies to roughly 5,000 employers and 1.4 million employees nationwide.
According to the Pay Equity Commissioner's 2025-2026 Annual Report, of 643 employers that filed their first annual statements under the Pay Equity Act, about 20% reported owing wage increases to female-predominant job classes, averaging $2.37 an hour. Among those employers, 21.2% had more than 500 employees, 23% had 100 to 499, and 12.8% had fewer than 100, according to the report.
Statistics Canada figures cited in the report show the wage gap ranging from 5.9% for workers aged 15 to 24 to 16.6% for those 55 and older – a pattern echoed in a recent report on the 27% gender pay gap in Canadian tech leadership roles.
Compliance rates were highest in road transportation, at 37.8%, followed by air transportation at 18% and telecommunications and broadcasting at 12.8%, with non-unionized employers consistently outpacing unionized ones. The report also logged 34 pay equity disputes filed during the year, of which 12 were closed, along with 490 requests for information – down from 679 the year before – and 172 new authorization requests, a sharp pullback from the 465 filed in 2024-2025.
Straznicky framed the numbers as evidence of unfinished work rather than a finish line. "Achieving the pay equity vision requires sustained action and continued leadership," she wrote in the report's introduction, adding that "important progress is underway" even as "there is still more work to do to ensure these efforts translate into meaningful change."
The renewed emphasis on pay equity lands as Canadian employers navigate a wider equity landscape, with many organizations holding firm on their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) commitments despite intensifying US pressure even as compliance costs from pay equity reporting climb.
