Mr. Chair, the notion that somehow, if you are told that you don't have a work refusal and you have recourse to the Canadian Human Rights Act is a bit ludicrous. Presumably you're refusing work because you believe that your health and safety are in danger. As we know, human rights legislation involves a very lengthy process and is the antithesis of a speedy resolution of a health and safety measure.
Frankly, it's absolutely not a solution to an appeal process. If somebody believes that their health and safety are in danger, especially if their refusal is rejected by a phone call from somebody who perhaps isn't even qualified to make that decision, goodness gracious, we could be putting people's lives at risk. I think that having some kind of basic appeal is pretty standard and would add greater transparency and safety to the workplace. I think that has to be paramount in all our minds as we contemplate this legislation.
In how many workplaces do you see safety is job one? It ought to be our job one when we are thinking through the impact of these clauses in Bill C-4. People's health, their limbs, their lives, could depend on the decisions we make. It sounds dramatic, except that bad things happen, and I think our obligation is to do the most we possibly can to ensure that people are protected and that their rights are enforced. Frankly, in a safety situation, recourse to human rights legislation, which could take years, is not a solution.