Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My first question is going to be for Mr. Secord.
On Thursday I was reading to the committee about a letter from Mr. Sidney Green, a former NDP cabinet minister from Manitoba. He wrote an article in the Winnipeg Free Press expressing his concerns about this legislation, and talked of political games and disruption of balance, lack of fairness, among other things. At the end of his letter, he writes:
But that will not be the end of it. Just as violence begets violence, legislation begets legislation. When the unseen consequences of the legislation begin to raise their ugly heads, there will be amendments upon amendments in an attempt to make the unworkable work. Each of the amendments will spawn further difficulties and more legislation. Industrial relations will shift its locale from union meetings, negotiating tables and picket lines to lawyers' offices, board meetings, court rooms and other locations far removed from the workplace. The employees will have exchanged freedom for an institutionalized, bureaucratized and regimentalized system of industrial relations. In the end, it will have proven to be a bad bargain.
He's speaking to your members. Not only does he say this is bad legislation coming out of a unique parliamentary situation, but it's even going to hurt your members. What are your thoughts on that, Mr. Secord?