Thank you, Chair, and members of the committee, for allowing us to address you today regarding Bill C-4.
My name is John Farrell, and I'm the executive director of FETCO. I'm accompanied by John Beckett, who is the vice-president of training, safety and recruitment for the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, and the chairman of the FETCO occupational health and safety committee. He is also the employer spokesperson on employment and social development Canada's regulatory review committee, and a member of the council of governors of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.
FETCO consists of most of the major federally regulated employers in transportation and communications and represents 450,000 employees in the federal jurisdiction.
FETCO first became aware of the proposed changes to part II of the Canada Labour Code after Bill C-4 was introduced in the House of Commons. We attended a meeting of ESDC's regulatory review committee. The regulatory review committee is a tripartite process based on a consultative model and allows both employers and labour representatives to provide expertise and guidance to the labour program with the objective of continually improving health and safety in federal workplaces.
FETCO supports the proposed changes because they strengthen the internal responsibility system, improve the overall efficiency and management of health and safety—they have safety officers in the field—and will strengthen the role of health and safety committees.
We'll now look at each of these components of the proposed legislation in more detail. I'll turn over that responsibility to John Beckett.