Public Safety Committee on April 12th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

You actually never take a breath, so it's really hard to interrupt you, Minister.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

I learned it over 42 years: don't breathe.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I think we have time for one more five-minute round from Ms. Gallant.

Just before she begins, though, there was a question raised by committee members around the contracting jurisdictions. You said in your remarks that you had consulted with them, or the government before this government, in 2015. I'm wondering if your officials could give us some indication in writing of any concerns or anything from the contracting jurisdictions—the provinces, territories, first nations communities, indigenous communities, and municipalities.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

The short answer is yes, and that goes for the requests from other members of the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Ms. Gallant.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

First of all, in terms of workers' compensation, how do the contributions that will have to be made towards covering the members affect the overall workplace injury costing? Will there be a greater cost in having to submit premiums to workers' compensation? Is there some sort of savings, or is there duplication in some cases?

[D/Commr Daniel Dubeau]

Well, there would be no costs off the top, because right now we're paying 100% regardless for members who are occupationally injured. That would not change. The only change you may see is actually the premium paid to workers' compensation, but that's negotiated through ESDC, the same as it is for the core public administration. That would be the only difference.

Having said that, would it be offset by the internal costs we're spending right now on this determination process? We haven't really done a full cost analysis on that, ma'am.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

I share the concern of my colleague Mr. O'Toole over the legitimacy of an institution perhaps being called into question if the voting is not conducted in secret, because there could be exposure to pressure, harassment, or just plain having influence amongst other voters.

But in attempting to reach some RCMP members, I was told that in December of 2015, they were told that they were not supposed to be contacting parliamentarians, and that they felt they were being muzzled from talking to us. In fact an email had been sent to me but apparently blocked, because it was to parl.gc.ca.

Can you verify whether or not there is any restriction of the members speaking to us?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Well, Ms. Gallant, I know absolutely that about seven RCMP members from the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia met with their member of Parliament last Friday in his constituency office in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and he's president of the Treasury Board. I know of no prohibition to members of the RCMP exercising their....

I know of no prohibition. I'm not aware of any. I know that these Nova Scotian RCMP members reached out to me as their member of Parliament, and I met with them.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

There seems to be some confusion amongst the members about what is in the legislation over the RCMP having its own union, separate and apart from any of the other civilian public service unions. Can you tell me whether or not there is definitely a distinction between the two?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

As part of the legislation, RCMP will have the opportunity to choose the bargaining agent or union of their choice, but the union ought to be one that represents RCMP or have police members. In part, that is to avoid conflict that could potentially arise otherwise.

Mr. Goodale may want to add to that.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Ms. Gallant, you will recall that this consultation took place at a time before the election last year. As I understand the results of the consultation among the membership, the majority preferred a single national bargaining unit for RCMP members and reservists and the requirement that the employee organization have as its primary mandate the representation of RCMP members and not be affiliated with a bargaining agent or an association whose primary mandate is not the representation of police officers.

In other words, the members wanted to have a collective bargaining agent that truly represents the nature of the work they do and the culture of the policing environment within which they have to work. We are doing our very best to respect that consultation.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Perfect. I think you have an internal clock.

Thank you, ministers and officials, for being with us today. I know you'd like to go on all afternoon, but we'll end our meeting here.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Mr. Chair, we will do our very best to get back in writing with the answers that committee members have asked us for.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

You've given us a tight timeline.

The meeting is adjourned.