Thank you very much, honourable members.
My name is Eric Advokaat. I'm the senior director of the occupational health and safety division for the labour program within Employment and Social Development Canada. I'm here with my colleague Charles Philippe Rochon, a senior analyst.
My area of expertise is really in part II of the Canada Labour Code, which is the occupational health and safety aspect of it. Charles Philippe will be able to address some of the detailed proposed changes in part III, which is really the labour standards portion of the Canada Labour Code.
Division 17 of part 4, as has been noted by the chair, is a large portion of the budget implementation act.
Number one, it proposes to amend the Canada Labour Code to update the suite of compliance and enforcement tools aimed at deterring non-compliance with occupational health and safety and labour standards requirements. This is to ensure that workers in federally regulated industries suffer fewer accidents and injuries at work, and that they receive the pay and benefits to which they are entitled. It will also consolidate the various adjudicative functions that exist under the code, under the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
There are three key changes that I'm going to speak to before I turn it over to Charles Philippe. These changes will apply both to part II, which, again, is the occupational health and safety aspect of the code, and to part III, the labour standards standards parts of the code.
These three amendments are to establish, under a new proposed part IV of the code, a system of administrative monetary penalties to promote compliance with occupational health and safety and labour standards requirements. This would include giving the Governor in Council regulation-making powers to designate violations and determine the associated penalties, up to a maximum of $250,000 per individual violation, and also setting out processes for the issuance review and appeal of notices of violation.
The second aspect is to provide authority to publish information about employers who have been found guilty of an offence or who have violated occupational health and safety or labour standards requirements. The type of information that could be published would also be spelled out in regulation after consultations with stakeholders, but could include, for instance, the employer's name, the nature of the violation or offence, and the associated penalties. Information would be published only once all review and appeal processes have been exhausted.
The third aspect of the change is to, as I've said, consolidate under the Canada Industrial Relations Board the functions of appeals officers under part II and of wage referees and unjust dismissal adjudicators under part III of the code, as well as the functions of adjudicators under the Wage Earner Protection Program Act. This entails some changes as well to part I of the code, which speaks to industrial relations, and would be necessary to adjust the board's powers, duties, and functions. We believe this measure would streamline the appeals process, better use existing expertise, enhance consistency of decisions, and promote a timely resolution of issues.
Those are the three bigger changes that apply to all aspects of the Canada Labour Code, and then there are several others that Charles Philippe is going to speak to that are proposed for part III of the code.