Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to what the hon. member had to say, and I realize that the grain industry is very important to the Canadian economy and to western Canada in particular. But I would like to say that grain is surely not more important than the lives and health of our fellow countrymen.
But people's lives and health, and these are under provincial jurisdiction, can also be affected by a labour dispute. What was the best solution found after a lot of research and trial and error? In order to strike a balance between the right of workers to strike and the priority right of individuals to health and safety, it was determined that the best solution was to establish the principle of essential services. Essential service does not mean the right to strike is taken away.
Those who dream of the day there will be no more strikes should realize that taking away the right to strike does not guarantee there will be no more strikes. In fact, history has shown that before the right to strike existed, there were many, extremely rough strikes, for the simple reason that there was no legislation. The strikes were there before the right to strike. If we want labour relations to be more harmonious, if we want grain and health to be priorities, we must ensure that labour relations are more conducive to dispute settlement.
We must not forget that, especially at a time when for more than ten years, in many cases, workers have had to tighten their belts, make all kinds of concessions and pay more and more taxes, when the economy starts picking up, these workers would like to have their modest share, at least. We must not forget that in this country, we see executives of private companies getting outrageously high salaries and benefits, although they are hardly as productive as Japanese companies. In Japan, the gap between the salaries or incomes of executives and employees is much narrower than in this country.
We cannot afford an economic model where executives can earn whatever they please and workers will just have to tighten their belts and watch others take their share of the profits. We must not forget why we have labour legislation. We have labour legislation because we had to deal with the flagrant injustice that existed at the time. And if we think that bringing all this back will lead to prosperity and harmonious labour relations in this country, I have got news for you. It will not happen.