That seems to be a clear-cut violation of both the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and paragraph 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees freedom of association and is the very basis upon which labour associational rights rest.
Let's look at the situation in Kitchener-Waterloo. I'm going to read from an article by Peter Shawn Taylor. He is the editor-at-large of Maclean's magazine. He lives in Waterloo. He said that in Hamilton:
...two workers signed carpenters’ union cards and were thus able to impose a union agreement on the entire city forever. As a result, the pool of eligible bidders for construction contracts in Hamilton was reduced by over 90 per cent. Of the 260 firms that had previously bid on city jobs, city staff calculated that only 17 were affiliated with the carpenters union.
So competition has been reduced by roughly 90% to 95%.
He went on:
Hamilton calculations show a 10 per cent increase in costs due to union-monopoly rules, or about $4 million to $10 million per year, for routine capital projects. With regards to a massive $1.1-billion waste-water treatment plan, the cost is estimated at an additional 20 per cent to 40 per cent.
We are talking $200 million to $400 million in extra costs as a result of a monopoly that the province imposes on the City of Hamilton.