Evidence of meeting #69 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was union.
A video is available from Parliament.
Representative, Power-Tek Electrical Services Inc., Merit Canada
I think that we—
Oh, sorry.
Representative, Power-Tek Electrical Services Inc., Merit Canada
Whether you're an open-shop contractor or a closed-shop contractor on any project today, you have a defined scope of work that you have to follow. You have qualified people to do that work. You provide bid bonds and payment material bonds in order to ensure successful completion of that job, again, regardless of what your stripe is.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Can you describe how it is that the City of Hamilton became a jurisdiction that bans union-free businesses from competing for infrastructure work?
Representative, Power-Tek Electrical Services Inc., Merit Canada
Pierre, I think I can, and Terrance can help me if I run into a problem here.
It's no different from what's happening with Kitchener-Waterloo right now. The Province of Ontario brought in card-based certification, which basically requires that if they have 55%-plus of the employees doing work on the day that the application for certification is filed, that organization becomes unionized.
What happened in Hamilton was that four carpenters working on a weekend put in an application for certification that wasn't dealt with in the specific allotted amount of time, which was 48 hours or so. Therefore, they missed their window and the entire city became unionized.
This is exactly what's happening in Kitchener-Waterloo right now—
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Wait a second here. Four workers signed a card, and that caused the entire construction workforce to become unionized?
Representative, Power-Tek Electrical Services Inc., Merit Canada
That's correct.
There are many examples of this happening right across the province of Ontario with companies, and we are seeing it with municipalities now.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Wait a second. I'm familiar with card check, where you go around and collect signatures and the union takes over once 50% of the workers have signed.
Representative, Power-Tek Electrical Services Inc., Merit Canada
Once 50% are signed, they can have a vote. If they have 55% of the employees who have signed cards on the date that the application is filed, then it's automatic card-based certification.
Conservative
Representative, Power-Tek Electrical Services Inc., Merit Canada
—on a Saturday.
Conservative
Representative, Power-Tek Electrical Services Inc., Merit Canada
That is correct.
Conservative
President, Merit Canada
We have that right now. A friend of mine in Ottawa had two employees who worked on a Saturday and signed cards while his other 16 employees were at home on that day.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Now this is where the infrastructure piece comes in.
How many contractors were then banned from submitting bids to the City of Hamilton for infrastructure projects as a result of this four-person certification?
President, Merit Canada
Mr. Poilievre, it depends on the contract, as not every contractor is qualified to bid on every contract.
There's an example in the City of Hamilton report, which I'll table with the committee, where 94% of the contractors were not able to bid. Of 260 contractors, only 17 had the proper required relationship with the carpenters union. Therefore, 94% of the eligible contractors in every other way were banned from bidding.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Before the weekend, there were 260 contractors competing for work—
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
—and after this four-person certification, all of a sudden, only 17 companies could compete for work.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
So 94% of the competition was banned.
At the time, did City of Hamilton officials express any concern about the cost implications of that?
