Evidence of meeting #71 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 work.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Mr. Atkinson, do any of your members compete for business outside of Canada?
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Do you think that they would potentially compete for business in Europe?
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
If, as some suggest, Canada were to pursue anti-competitive policies that ban foreign competitors from bidding on Canadian-based projects, do you believe that European jurisdictions would ban Canadian companies from doing likewise?
President, Canadian Construction Association
I can't speak for the European countries. I can say, however, that from our perspective, our board of director's position on this is that reciprocity is the key. To the extent that those markets are open to Canadian firms, then the markets in Canada should be open to them. From that perspective, reciprocity is the key.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Great.
From the point of view of the CLAC, how do you become certified as a representative of workers? In a heartbeat—we don't have a lot of time—what is the threshold required for your union to be certified for a bargaining unit?
Regional Director, Eastern Ontario, Christian Labour Association of Canada
We follow the exact same procedures and application procedure in every province or jurisdiction in which we seek certification as other unions do.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Right. Typically does that mean you get either a card or a vote, and you have to get 50% of the vote?
Regional Director, Eastern Ontario, Christian Labour Association of Canada
That's correct. It's nominally different in every region across Canada.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
So a majority of workers whom you represent have obviously chosen to be represented by you.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Okay. So you don't force a group of workers to join your union.
Regional Director, Eastern Ontario, Christian Labour Association of Canada
Absolutely not.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
Okay.
In the instance of Hamilton and now Waterloo, we have two workers forcing all workers to join one union. That is exactly how the certification happened. Do you think this is a fair certification practice?
Director, Federal and Ontario, Progressive Contractors Association of Canada
If I could jump in, I would say it's more than just all of the work. If this were just about the two workers representing the 20 carpenters who happen to be on the staff of the City of Hamilton, that would be one thing, and we can argue that wouldn't be fair either. But this is actually about two workers making a decision for the thousands of workers in the City of Hamilton who had been doing work for the City of Hamilton before that.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
So basically two, and in the case of Waterloo, again there were two workers who happened to be working on a blue shed at a library, and they were able to apply and secure certification for all of the Waterloo region. So the thousands of workers who are employed doing this kind of work in the region were certified because two people wanted to be.
Director, Federal and Ontario, Progressive Contractors Association of Canada
For workers who were working on the 200 million dollars' worth of annual capital budget for the region of Waterloo, yes.
Conservative
Director, Federal and Ontario, Progressive Contractors Association of Canada
Correct.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
I mean, I have never heard of a certification process in the world that works like that. There are a lot of different ways you can certify a union, but to have two people certify hundreds or even thousands of workers is astonishing.
We have a lot of people with labour experience on the other side. I don't know if they can come up with an example where two people forced hundreds or thousands to join a union and then forced taxpayers to pay an inflated price of 20% to 40%.
How is it possible that two people can make that decision for all those workers, those thousands of workers, and hundreds of thousands of taxpayers?
Director, Federal and Ontario, Progressive Contractors Association of Canada
This is Canadian labour relations.
Conservative
Director, Federal and Ontario, Progressive Contractors Association of Canada
This is simply the reality in numerous jurisdictions, most notably in Ontario. It's true; it doesn't make any sense. It's simply a—
