Good morning, Mr. Vice-Chair and members of the committee.
My name is David Wallbridge. I am a labour and employment lawyer in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I want to begin by acknowledging that I'm in Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people.
I'd also like to acknowledge and thank the committee's staff for their assistance in arranging for my video appearance.
Most of my practice involves representing employees and unions across Atlantic Canada in the public and private sectors. Beyond the representational work, I have an ongoing interest in legislative matters affecting workers' issues and rights.
From a workplace perspective, the provinces, in particular, have abandoned most athletes, particularly hockey players, but in some cases any athletes working for a team, such as soccer, lacrosse—it doesn't matter what sport.
This committee should be very concerned about the workplace rights of players. From a safety perspective, having basic workplace rights and a means to having those rights enforced, helps to balance a very unbalanced power structure.
Many of my comments will focus on the Canadian Hockey League and its affiliate leagues and teams.
The players who work for Canadian Hockey League teams are young, and they're chasing a dream. It puts them in an extraordinarily vulnerable position.
In general, young workers are more vulnerable than others. They're inexperienced, often working their first job. They're not aware of their rights. Many are minors working for adults.
It's the same for major junior hockey. You have 16-year-olds working with 20-year-olds or older. That's who the employer employs.
Watching some of the games, it's unimaginable, as an employment lawyer, to think of a situation where an adult can get into a fist fight with a minor and there are no consequences. What's most troubling is that the owners profit from it.
I understand it's a unique workplace. Being an employee player on a hockey team is different from most workplaces. There are bosses. There are job requirements. The team earns revenue. The owners desire to make a profit off the labour of their players. It's really not much different from any other private sector enterprise.
What has happened in the provinces is nothing short of a complete withdrawal of any protection for these employees. Most provinces have exempted athlete employees and hockey player employees from many of their minimum labour standards.
What happened in Nova Scotia, where I'm from, just as an example, was astonishing. With no public consultation, and with, reportedly, no Canadian Hockey League lobbyists registered in the province, worker rights were taken away in the middle of the summer by regulation. It was reported by CBC News that, essentially, the league called, and the premier changed the law. It was law reform in fast-forward. This has now spread to most other provinces—the lack of minimum labour standards for employees.
What should the committee do about it?
The committee needs to recommend, or have as part of any inquiry, some option to intervene on behalf of employee players. The committee should recommend an inquiry, or that the federal government instruct its legal counsel to come forward with whatever proposals are required to put in place proper workplace protections for the health and safety of employee players.
This could include taking action under the Canada Labour Code to have it declared as federal work or undertaking. This should all be part of any review of safety in sport, not just for hockey but for all other athletes. This is really about, and we've heard it from other witnesses, the shocking imbalance of power that exists, while a significant imbalance of power is between these employees and their employers, the teams and the league.
Thank you.