Thanks very much for the opportunity. I'm Dan Kelly, the president of CFIB.
I'm here to speak in favour of this piece of legislation and to give you a little bit of an understanding of how this would work from our perspective.
There's been a lot of discussion about whether what's good for the goose is good for the gander—whether groups that are not-for-profit associations, advocacy groups for taxpayers, small business owners, or business owners of any sort should be subject to the same kinds of provisions. However, there is one important principle, one important difference that needs to be spoken about with respect to this legislation that targets unions and the spending of unions, and that is the voluntary nature of membership fees.
We in most associations, and certainly in my association, have completely voluntary membership fees. If a member of ours, a small business owner and a member of CFIB, at any given point in time feels that my spending, our spending, is inappropriate or has questions or doubts about that in any way, they can quit the next day.
In Canada, because of the Rand formula, that is impossible. You are required by law to pay union dues whether or not you want to be a member.
I accept that most union members likely want to belong to the union and support the union that they're a part of. I don't take any issue with that. However, I will say that because legislation in Canada, legislation that is largely unprecedented in the world these days, gives unions massive powers to collect dues from those who may not wish to belong, then additional sets of responsibilities should be taken to address them to ensure that those—perhaps few—members who don't want to belong and don't want to pay dues are able to get as much information as they can to inform their thinking about the organization they are funding.
We have 109,000 members across Canada. All of them are completely voluntary. We are a non-partisan organization, we work with all political parties at all times, we don't endorse candidates in any fashion, and we don't accept government funding. I'm really pleased to hear that some of our organized labour colleagues are joining our call for reduced red tape and paperwork, but I have to note that it is largely the first time I've ever heard this. Most of the time most organized labour organizations are pushing for additional regulation, additional red tape for business on a day-to-day basis.
Somehow Canadians have convinced themselves that we are in the mainstream of union legislation around the world, that Canada is perhaps somewhere between the U.S. and Europe, but nowhere in Europe right now are employees who work in a unionized environment required to pay union dues. In Canada they are. Again, with that, additional responsibilities are due to the union members and to the public by an additional level of disclosure.
We do have a suggestion, though. If a union is uncomfortable with this legislation, perhaps there could be an exemption made for those unions that decide to make their union memberships and union dues voluntary. Perhaps then they wouldn't need to be subject to this additional standard. If that were able to be changed, certainly we would support that.
Thanks very much.