Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I also want to thank the witnesses who have come before the committee.
This legislation that's before this committee needs guidance particularly from the B.C. and Quebec models, to see what the similarities and the differences are. That is what I think I need to understand further from the witnesses. Unfortunately, there wasn't a great deal of clarification. I'm hoping that with my questions, there could be some.
I had an opportunity to look at part 5 of the Labour Relations Code from British Columbia. From what I read—and I want to make sure this is correct—in terms of the areas of difference between the B.C. model and this particular model, one is on the issue of employees being able to cross the picket line.
A second is the issue in clause 3 of the bill, which talks about $1,000 fines per day. I believe there is a maximum of $10,000 in B.C., so that was the other major difference that I saw between the B.C. code and Bill C-257.
I'm not sure the third one is major or minor, but it's on the issue of the essential service provision of the act, which is paragraph 72(1)(i), it speaks of “health, safety or welfare of the residents of British Columbia”. When it deals with essential services under the present legislation that we have, part I of the Canada Labour Code basically speaks of health and safety as the provisions that need to be resolved before one can go on strike. It seems that the only added caveat is the welfare.
Mr. Jason Koshman, are you a legal expert? I would like to hear from somebody from labour and somebody else from the business community so that I can figure out what the similarities and the differences are between the B.C. code and Bill C-257.