Thank you for giving me the floor, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Calkins, I am sorry to say that this is one of the worst presentations I have heard since I was elected. I have a few simple questions to ask.
Your bill amends the Canada Labour Code by eliminating the most efficient and simple way to organize workers in order to improve their working and living conditions, in this case signing a card, thus indicating one's commitment to defend one's rights and unionize. Not only have you swept this aside in order to impose an electoral campaign—indeed, a secret vote is an electoral campaign which makes opponents of the employer and the union that is trying to organize itself, but does not yet exist. You are also imposing rules that are so biased in favor of the employer or against the union, that it is difficult to view your bill as fair or even balanced.
According to the rules you are introducing, for example, if 100 employees working in a unit are asked whether they would like to form a union and 49 of them vote in favor of the union whereas 51 do not vote at all, the union could not see the light of day, even if the employees who voted supported the union 100%, since votes that are not cast are also counted. You presume that those who did not vote are automatically opposed to forming a union.
Furthermore, as you said earlier, none of the 308 House of Commons MPs would have a seat if your rules were applied to federal elections. That is quite extraordinary. Welcome to “Absurdistan“.
How can you claim that this is a democratic rule when you are counting ballots that have not been cast? Can you explain this?