I think I speak for Conservative members, Mr. Chair—or I may be corrected if they want to weigh in on these amendments—when I say that the amendments certainly contradict the basic direction given in the survey, in that members want an RCMP-specific union that will be able to serve the unique needs of a paramilitary organization, as was canvassed at length within committee testimony. That is consistent with direction from the Supreme Court, which has said the Wagner model is not required in all situations and that as long as employee choice and independence are met, the bargaining agent can be narrow to the group impacted by the bargaining.
I would also suggest that despite some of the nice comments about sharing boardrooms and things like that between one union and another, the power imbalance that leads to the need for a union now exists in the creation of these mega-unions that lump together a whole series of workers who do not have shared interests, whereas the collective of the mega-union has weight and power vis-à-vis the employer. In the case of the RCMP, we really want to make sure the needs of the front-line members are respected by a unique and specialized bargaining agent, but this is the creep of other unions trying to then subsume or affiliate, and I don't see that being in the members' interests at all. It clearly runs contrary to the survey and to the intention of Bill C-7, so we'll be opposing both amendments for that reason.