Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here, Minister. As you know, this is an important committee.
The committee recently studied a bill your predecessor introduced to prohibit the use of replacement workers during labour disputes. The idea behind the legislation is to maintain industrial peace, to ensure that bargaining rights can be fully exercised and so on.
Minister, nowhere in your mandate letter, which wasn't renewed, does it say how the Minister of Labour is going to promote the fundamental rights set out in our charters. I am talking about labour rights that everyone respects and wants to advance, specifically, the right to organize, the right to bargain freely and the right to strike. In 1985, they were recognized as fundamental rights, including by the Supreme Court in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan.
I must say, you have been quite busy since you took office. I want to highlight some of the things you've done. You made use, in an unprecedented way, of a new toy the columnists refer to as section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, to steamroll the right to strike and to impose binding arbitration. That was akin to forcing working conditions on workers because the decision was binding.
How do you justify that when free bargaining is a right?
Do you not see that as limiting the right to bargain?