Emanuela Heyninck is currently serving her third term as head of the Pay Equity Commission for Ontario, an independent agency of the Ministry of Labour. The Commission enforces the Ontario Pay Equity Act, which aims to redress systemic gender compensation issues. In addition to its enforcement and education mandate, the Commission has the authority to research and make recommendations to the Minister of Labour on issues related to pay equity, gender wage gaps and women and work. Ms. Heyninck regularly speaks on these issues in a variety of forums. For the last two years, Ms. Heyninck has participated as part of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women sessions held in March in New York.
In April of 2015, Ms. Heyninck was one of four individuals appointed by the Ontario government to the Gender Wage Gap Strategy Steering Committee. The Committee conducted research and held public consultations to seek solutions to close the gender wage gap in Ontario. The Committee’s recommendations were submitted to the Minister of Labour in May of 2016.
Since 2010, Ms. Heyninck has also served as a part-time adjudicator for the Health Professions and Health Services Appeal and Review Boards. HPARB reviews decisions of the complaints committees of the various regulated health professions. HSARB hears appeals from decisions made by OHIP regarding health insurance coverage.
Ms. Heyninck is immediate Past President of the Society of Adjudicators and Regulators and has served on several of SOAR’s committees and on the Board of Director and Executive. She is a member of several Advisory Councils, including Conestoga College and the University of Western Ontario Student Law Clinic and is a mentor at Brescia College. She holds an Hon. B.A. in Italian and French from McMaster University and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Windsor.
Before her appointment she practiced civil, family, and administrative law in London ON for 25 years. Her past community involvement has included several terms on the Executives of the London Chamber of Commerce, the London Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Middlesex Family Lawyers Association, the Middlesex as well as the Ontario Collaborative Law Group, Hospice of London, and Investing in Children.
