Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Lewis, for being here today and for taking on this work that has been advocated for by others. I'm going to give a shout-out to my former colleague Scott Duvall, who presented a similar bill a couple of Parliaments before this one, and of course to my colleague Matthew Green from the NDP, who also presented a very similar bill. I will note my own work around this table when Bill C-19 was here in order to ensure there was fair tax treatment, as Mr. Chambers was saying, equal to or certainly like the kind of treatment that businesses get for writing down certain kinds of expenses. There is a long track record of supporting this kind of work, and I thank you for your contribution to it.
On the question we've been discussing when it comes to collective bargaining rights, I do think it is disgraceful to see the notwithstanding clause abused in this way. I share Monsieur Ste-Marie's incredulity at seeing Liberals and Conservatives argue over this point, because I've watched Liberals legislate people back to work.
I think the use of the notwithstanding clause is a relevant federal issue, because this is a precedent. The notwithstanding clause can be used by the federal government as much as it can by provincial governments. If we care about workers' rights to bargain collectively in Canada, it matters when a provincial government does this. It sets a precedent that can be used by other provinces and by the federal government.
This is something a province is doing that will have consequences in not only its own jurisdiction. This is something that a province is doing that will have repercussions for workers across the country if either another provincial government or the federal government decides to pull this kind of stunt one day. Therefore, I do think we should be properly concerned with this issue around this table. I don't think we can just write it off as a provincial issue. The notwithstanding clause is not simply a provincial issue. It's an issue of our constitution, which applies right across the country and to all levels of government.
Now you know what I think about that.
As an IBEW member and construction electrician in Manitoba, I just want to circle back to Manitoba, which you mentioned in your opening remarks. I recall that before 2016 we had a lot of local employment. In fact, our hall was trying to get more and more people to travel to Manitoba because we had a provincial government that was investing in infrastructure. That meant not only that people were getting paid to be on publicly funded infrastructure projects in Manitoba but also that we had very high private sector confidence and very high levels of private sector investment.
The government changed in 2016. We saw the public financing of infrastructure projects go away. Then we started seeing a lot less private sector investment in places like downtown Winnipeg. Then we saw high levels of local unemployment, persistent unemployment, even as the government was quite happy to invite non-union contractors from outside the province to come do work in Manitoba.
We also have to think about the role governments play in funding good public works with good requirements around good pay and good benefits when we talk about whether people are going to have to travel for work and whether they have good work available to them.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm sorry I ran out of time, and we don't have time for a response.