Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Liberal members on the committee have made very strong arguments for why this is something that can be interpreted by the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board. Not only is there jurisprudence on the word, there is also an opportunity to learn as the new culture change happens.
I want to point out another concern that I have about this potential amendment. It is that by being overly specific in the definition of “affiliation”, we risk not capturing other inappropriate affiliations. For example, it's not that I'm suggesting that this will happen, but there could be a situation in which an RCMP employee association exercises control over another organization not involved in police matters. This also would create that vulnerability in terms of the RCMP members needing to do their job without having divided loyalties. By being overly specific, you actually open the door to inappropriate affiliations that you haven't specified rather than allowing the board to make a determination as needed on a case-by-case basis.