Human Resources Committee on Nov. 28th, 2006

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be sharing my time with Ms. Yelich.

My concern relates primarily to Ontario. We had some dark days in 1993, 1994, and 1995, when similar legislation was put into effect. I know that in my hometown we lost businesses and we lost jobs. Families who depended on their employment became unemployed. This hurt families. It was, obviously, a disappointing time for Ontario.

The electorate in 1995 loudly expressed dissatisfaction with this policy and the government. Then the socialist premier of Ontario, Bob Rae, was fortunately given his walking papers, and this was one of the significant aspects of his government.

I want to get your comments. How can you reconcile the failure of this in Ontario, when it was used in those two years, with what might happen? And I note, the government at the time was led by Bob Rae, when this disastrous economic period happened.

For repetition, it was Bob Rae, the socialist premier of Ontario—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

—when Ontario undertook such a grave recession. I wonder how you reconcile that.

At the same time, I'd like to note that Ontario without this legislation, where we're prospering now without this legislation, has lost fewer work days than Quebec, where they have this legislation. Why has Ontario been more successful in having labour peace without this legislation while Quebec hasn't? How can you reconcile that? That's the first point.

The second point is, have you had any consultations with the chamber of commerce? I know that my local chamber of commerce is very fearful that this legislation will have repercussions for working families in my riding. I'm sure there are similar sentiments across the country.

[A voice]

Bravo!

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Brown.

I was born in Ontario and I am nevertheless delighted that Tommy Douglas opened the way to public health care and that all the other provinces followed suit. As for Mike Harris, providing school boards with fairly equal funding to ensure they could operate was evidence of a very socialist vision. I have a lot of respect for that initiative, even if it came from Mr. Harris. When we talk about developing society, various needs must be taken into consideration.

That said, you will never really be able to assess the impact of the bill on replacement workers in Ontario, since you didn't keep it for very long. In fact, immediately after the defeat of Mr. Rae's NDP government, the Conservatives axed the bill. Not much time passed. If you want positive examples of labour relations, look to Quebec and British Columbia. Compare the situation in those two provinces to what existed before and after.

You mentioned the chambers of commerce. The Conseil du patronat du Québec never took steps to prevent implementation of legislation prohibiting replacement workers in Quebec. The Council, along with the general public, clearly saw that a kind of social peace with regard to labour negotiations had been created. We are talking here about the 92% of workers who fall under Quebec jurisdiction, and not federal jurisdiction, meaning under the Canada Labour Code.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Mr. Nadeau, I wanted to get another quick question in.

Obviously we can have different opinions on the length of that period. Many of the thousands and thousands of working families who lost their jobs because of that felt that two years was too long, but that's a point of disagreement.

In 2003 the provincial Liberals--and I know Ms. Brown, being a member from Ontario, obviously would support them--reviewed the legislation and decided not to bring it back. Why do you believe that Premier Dalton McGuinty rejected this after the review as not being an appropriate course for Ontario to take? So we've seen a decision by the Conservative government in 1995 that this recession-causing initiative was bad, and now we've seen the opposite political party come to the same conclusion. This is rather conclusive evidence in Ontario that it doesn't work.

Do you have any sentiments to offer on that, on Mr. McGuinty's decision?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Just a quick response, Mr. Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

We would have to ask Mr. McGuinty. I'm not here to answer for him.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much. That's all the time we have right now.

Mr. Nadeau, I want to thank you for coming out today to talk about your bill. We're going to move very shortly in camera.

You indicated to us that you had some stats for us. I'm wondering if you could table those with the clerk or the researcher so that we could get them distributed to our members.

We'll take a second just to go in camera to talk about motions.

Yes, Mr. Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Okay, I will bring you this.

I will bring those documents for the next meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Mr. Regan, you had a motion. Did you want to move that motion today or...? Next time? Okay.

The meeting is adjourned.