Thank you for the question.
We prohibit the use of replacement workers. We make sure that the collective bargaining process is as free and fair as it can be, so that workers are empowered to ask for more when they feel they deserve more for the work they do.
I sat in on many of these consultations. I think I sat in on all of them on replacement workers. We decided to make sure that employers and employees had the opportunity to sit down in the same room together and air their concerns and grievances to one another, as well as where they saw the benefits.
To get to where you were going with your question on those consultations, right now we are still going through what we heard. What we have committed, with the NDP, is that we will be introducing legislation by the end of this year. Having gone through these fairly extensive and very frank consultations that, again, I sat in on myself, I think we have an opportunity to make sure we get this right.
The consultations were extremely important. I realize that the issue of replacement workers is not new to the House. I realize that private members’ bills have been introduced in the House on several occasions, but we have a strong and proud history in this department, and in labour in this country, of tripartite negotiations and sitting down with employers and employees. I wanted to take it a step further. I wanted to make sure that everybody was in the same room so that we had very fulsome discussions on how this could best be implemented in the interest of workers and in the interest of the economy as a whole. I think we're getting there.