Thank you.
As the bill now stands, we believe it would shift the balance inordinately in favour of labour, to the detriment of our industry, which is so important to us.
Up until now, the labour code upheld the right of a union to withhold its labour, but also the right of an employer to operate. We believe this balance is needed to maintain a fair and productive labour relationship. We believe the labour code will serve northerners best if it allows industry to maintain the workplace so workers have a job to come back to when a dispute ends.
From our perspective, the bill is seriously flawed, in that it overwhelmingly shifts the balance toward labour. We believe this would weaken the viability of our northern mining industry and therefore the northern economy. This would harm the interests of the residents of the north and would severely limit their future opportunities.
Thank you.