It's the vagueness around the term “affiliation”. That was the concern expressed by the MPPAC. It was that “affiliation” isn't defined in this act, which means it's open to definition.
If we take affiliation in its sort of basic semantic sense, it's some sort of association or relationship, so without further definition, “affiliation” could mean potentially any kind of association or relationship. That's why I say it's it's meant to be in the section that provides greater clarity. It's just to specify here is what it's not, or here is what it is.
It would be anything that constitutionally joins that group to another group. It would be anything that puts it underneath. It would be anything that allows another organization to exercise a substantial degree of control, direction, or restriction. Once we know that, then things that don't engage those clauses would be seen as acceptable forms of affiliation.
It's a problem of vagueness. It's not that those arrangements are explicitly precluded from the legislation; it's that that's how it could come to be interpreted. From my point of view, that's something that will hang over the head of a start-up of a union that's looking to resource itself across the country. It's not like it's starting in one local. It is different. It's not like it's starting in a factory that will be the only place where it has to serve its members. It's going to have serve members across the entire country, in some of the most remote corners, and it's going to need to figure out how to have the resources to do that.
As the act reads right now, someone could bring a decertification action against them if they do rent space, and then that would be another headache they would have to deal with. It's expensive, because now that's going to be litigated. All of that distracts from them actually getting on with the job of representing RCMP members. I think we could do them a favour now by providing clarity on what affiliation means so there's less of that kind of risk as they prepare to represent RCMP members.