Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I've been asked to pass along the regrets of George Smith, who is the chair of FETCO and who would normally be attending a hearing dealing with a bill of this magnitude. Unfortunately, as you know, we were all faced with very short notice with respect to appearing. He unfortunately is tied up in Montreal.
I didn't have a chance to speak to Ms. Lafrance before the session, but I hope you got the copies of the brief, which I sent on Sunday. They're bilingual.
First of all, I'll take two seconds out to give you a little bit of a biographical sketch. In a previous existence I worked for the CPR for 30 years. I was in labour relations. On three occasions when I worked for the CPR—and maybe some of the members, those who were around in 1995, were involved in this—railway employees had to be sent back to work as a result of a strike that was causing a significant amount of harm to the Canadian economy. So I know something about essential services.
For the last 25 years, I have been involved in public policy discussions with respect to amending labour law and regulations. I have been involved in the development of amendments to part II of the code, part III of the code, part I of the code, and a number of other regulations and legislation, so I have quite an experience in terms of legislative development.
I'll start off by pointing out that early in our history labour relations came under federal jurisdiction. It wasn't until a court decision in 1926—actually, the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council—that it was determined that labour unions are not agents of interprovincial trade and commerce, but in fact civil rights organizations, and therefore were more properly regulated by the provinces, except, of course, for those industries designated for the benefit and the good of Canada as a whole, and those are the industries that are listed in part I or the start of the Canada Labour Code. They are under federal jurisdiction because they are of a nature essential to Canada.
As Ms. Lavallée pointed out in response or in a question to the minister, you are right; federal jurisdiction industries and provincial jurisdiction industries are not the same.
I'm not going to go through a list of the reasons they are essential. We know the post office, communications, and transportation provide essential services, so I don't have to go through the list.
If somebody would like to see a good synopsis or a snapshot of the federal sector, I would suggest they go to the introductory chapter of the Harry Arthurs report on part III of the Canada Labour Code, which was recently presented to the minister, probably a few weeks ago, because it kind of encapsulates the sector.
One thing that is not unique, of course, to the federal sector is that a very high proportion of the employees in the federal sector are employees of large companies. You can think of the banking industry, which is an oligopoly. There are five or six huge banks, and I know there are a lot more other banks as well. They're large companies that employ a large number of people. It's the same with radio and television, communications, transportation, and railways, for example: large organizations, a mature bargaining relationship, very heavily regulated, which often becomes a factor in collective bargaining, technologically advanced, in a constant state of reorganization, and often multiple unions, which is another characteristic of the federal sector. Of course there are multiple union situations in the provincial jurisdiction, but not to the same extent as you have federally—and believe me, having worked with an organization such as the CPR, which had 14 unions when I started, the labour relations problems multiply.
You add all this, the regulatory change, the technological change, the interplay between unions, and you can understand the kinds of labour relations tensions that build up.
Now, I don't want in any way to demean the provincial sector. There are some very, very important industries that come under provincial jurisdiction. I'll just mention three: the automobile industry, forest products, and oil extraction and processing. But they don't have the same impact. Sure, a strike of the automobile industry if the entire industry were struck in southern Ontario--