Thank you, Chair.
The proposed amendment by the NDP is inconsistent with the objective of making the essential services designation process more efficient and effective. The definition of what constitutes an essential service is not the problem; rather, the process itself and its ability to deliver results that ensure the safety and security of the public are protected where a strike may take place.
Let me give you some statistics, Mr. Chair.
Only six out of fourteen groups on the strike route have been able to negotiate an essential service agreement, an ESA. These six ESAs cover less than 20,000 public servants. The ESAs for 91,000 public servants have not been included, even after more than seven years of negotiations. The average time to reach an ESA for the six groups is two years and five months. For seven years, for example, we have been unable to negotiate an ESA with border guards. You can only imagine the chaos and the security risk to our country if border guards were to go on strike.