Evidence of meeting #83 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was workers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
What about the process itself, the federal process? Is it one that is pursued—the request—very often by union members?
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Halton, ON
They don't have to report to us when they're seeking financial information from their unions, but what we can tell you are two things with respect to what people say. We can tell you that we do know of a Nanos poll that indicated that Canadians in general think it's a good idea to know how their union dues or how union dues in general are being spent.
The second part of it is, too, that as members of Parliament we do hear from our constituents, and one of my constituents is actually your colleague's constituent, my mother, who's a member of CAW, who does want to know where her union dues go. She has talked to me extensively about this private member's bill. She's pleased with it as well.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Minister, if they don't get the information, it's up to the department to come in and make sure they get the information. Is that a process that's often used?
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Halton, ON
I think the way it would work is if an individual had a complaint—and in fact I would expect it would go this way.
Liberal
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Halton, ON
It wouldn't come to me as the Minister of Labour. It would go to the CIRB. They would end up having a complaint, and I don't know what the case law is at the CIRB, but there have been some cases.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Would the officials have some kind of indication as to the number of complaints that would have been lodged under this? You wouldn't have any indication?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Mr. Cuzner, we're stringing quite a long way out. But we're giving you the opportunity, if the minister is willing.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Halton, ON
The CIRB surely could get you some information, or you can do your own search online.
Liberal
Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS
Following a question posed by Mr. Boulerice about the federal government and its impact on collective bargaining, when we look at back-to-work legislation—and certainly our party has used back-to-work legislation in the past. I want to ask specifically, though, about the most recent back-to-work legislation presented to Canada Post. There was a provision there where the wage that was offered was below what had been negotiated. If I could ask you just generally, is that common? Have there been other occurrences of that? Why would that provision have been put into the back-to-work legislation?
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Halton, ON
It is not uncommon for wages to be included in back-to-work legislation. I do believe that a former government of your party did that as well, where wages were set.
Conservative
Lisa Raitt Conservative Halton, ON
I don't know where they were in terms of the collective bargaining process, as to whether they were higher or lower. That was a moment in time I wasn't around.
In this case they were, and they were set to reflect what was happening with respect to PSAC and other unions in the government at the time. There was no agreement at the table. There were two offers. There was the employer's offer and the employees' offer, in terms of wages. But they were so far apart on other issues there was no actual determinant of where the wages would end up at the end of the day. We felt that this was an appropriate level for wages and we included it in the legislation.
I should point out, just to bookend the Canada Post situation, that they did conclude their own deal at the end of the day. Our goal was to get the mail going again. We accomplished that through back-to-work legislation. They needed to do a deal. They had a process in front of them. They rejected the process. Instead they did their own deal. Good on them.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Thank you very much for that, and for answering questions in various areas that Mr. Cuzner wished to explore this morning.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
We thank you also for appearing in an abridged amount of time, given the circumstances. Thank you, Minister, and I also thank the officials for appearing.
We'll just have a short suspension. We'd like to get the Human Resources officials at the table, if we could.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
We'll start the second half hour.
We have officials with us here from HRSDC. I understand we'll have Ms. Jackson presenting. She is the senior associate deputy minister. And we also Mr. Douglas Stewart. Other officials will be here to assist as and when required.
We'll start with Ms. Jackson. Go ahead.
Karen Jackson Senior Associate Deputy Minister, Chief Operating Officer for Service Canada, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
Actually it's Mr. Parker.