Human Resources committee  That was in our submission. What you'll see is that as employers make their decision on where to expand, they're going to expand in a jurisdiction where they're comfortable that they know they're going to be able to operate. So in B.C., for instance--I'm not going to name names b

Human Resources committee  That was a quote, I believe, from the Sims report. And what he was getting at is that some employers will restructure so that their reliance on permanent employees drops, so that if there is a labour disruption they will be in a jurisdiction where they'll be able to continue to o

Human Resources committee  What happened in that case was that because he could not bring in replacement workers, he went out of business. Maybe I should have been more explicit in that. If he had been allowed to continue to operate during the labour dispute, he would not have gone out of business. He coul

Human Resources committee  Let me answer part of it, and I'll turn to Jerry to answer the other part. There's a perception that there isn't a problem. There is a problem in B.C. with this legislation. There have been businesses that have shut down because of it, and we've got examples of that, if you'd l

Human Resources committee  Yes. There's a newspaper company, for example, in the Comox Valley area, at which 140 employees went on strike. The employer told the union well in advance that he had to make changes to his operations in order to survive. Within a couple of weeks of the strike starting, people w

Human Resources committee  I want to say very briefly, the Sims task force consulted widely. We met with them at least once, if not twice or more, in our offices with member companies who are federally regulated. We had no consultation with this, absolutely none, until we were allowed to appear here.

Human Resources committee  Mr. Sinclair is correct. People may cross the picket line in B.C., as long as they were hired before notice to collective bargaining was given. In effect, this allows the employer to continue to operate, if they so choose, by using people who cross the picket line--which happens

Human Resources committee  No, there is not.

Human Resources committee  One of the differences, yes.

Human Resources committee  The very quick response is that our economy is booming, in spite of the replacement worker legislation. But we get a lot of phone calls in our office from potential investors wanting to know if we still have the replacement worker provision. They don't want to put an investment a

Human Resources committee  Maybe I can respond somewhat. There are two big differences that I see. One is the issue of being able to cross the picket line. The other issue is the ability of the employer to operate.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Because B.C. passed replacement worker legislation a few years ago, I think it's important that you understand fully how this occurred. When the NDP provincial government was elected in 1992, it did a full review of what was then the Industrial Relations Act through