Thank you very much.
I'm here from the United Steelworkers. We appreciate the opportunity to speak to you.
As you know, the Steelworkers represent 280,000 members in Canada in all sectors of the working world. We encourage all our members to participate in and take control over their conditions of working and conditions of life. To that end, the Steelworkers are looking to the bill to provide what we have found workers need to have faith in their ability to contribute to a democratic system, which is information about the system and the ability to have input into the system.
The Steelworkers have taken a more general approach than my colleague in our response to this bill. We have identified three areas. There are areas where we strongly support the bill and think it should not be changed, areas where the bill is silent and where the Steelworkers think there's a strong need for action, and areas that have the potential to be great, but where we would suggest changes.
The Steelworkers strongly support the creation of the parliamentary budget officer. We feel that to give accurate information that's not swayed by political concerns is a move that's beyond due.
The reporting requirement for lobbyists we think is also important information for the public to have. Also, we are strongly in favour of ending the lobbyists' success fees, and also of ending corporate and union donations in elections. The Steelworkers have been active in assisting political parties, but there are other ways than financial to do so. Those are the areas the Steelworkers support.
There are also areas the Steelworkers would like to see added to this act, such as Access to Information Act reform, which had been discussed prior to the bill. Some federal bodies have been added and are now covered by access to information, but the system really needs a greater overhaul, in our opinion.
We're also disappointed that there's nothing in the bill that would affect leadership races, as opposed to elections, and nothing that speaks to members who are elected and then change their party affiliations. Those are areas where the Steelworkers feel the bill could be improved.
Finally, there are cases that the Steelworkers think have good potential. The creation of the Public Appointments Commission we think is a great thing, but in order for it to be effective, we would suggest that the committee introduce language that would require it to be independent of the Prime Minister's Office and to report on its functioning. And come to that, if possible, there should be language to require that it come into existence at all and that it can't be delayed by the refusal of the governing party to nominate someone to chair it.
Finally, with regard to whistle-blower protection, the Steelworkers echo and adopt the submission of my colleague from ONA. Unions have experience in how to protect workers from retaliation, and we agree that the public is best served if people can speak out before a situation reaches a point of major illegality or immediate threat to life.
Those are our submissions.