Mr. Speaker, all along we have noticed the government's lack of co-operation on amendments dictated by common sense.
We are speaking on behalf of the witnesses who testified before us. They told us that in general this bill contained interesting things. We never pushed partisan politics to the point of saying that this piece of legislation was altogether bad; however, we believe it does not go far enough, it could have contained what we already
have in Quebec, very clear provisions dealing with unfair practices regarding replacement workers.
We would have liked this bill to be more explicit with regard to technological change and board membership.
Why not have made sure the wording was clear? As a lawyer, Mr. Speaker, and a brilliant one at that, you know how important it is for a piece of legislation to contain provisions which are very clear, which cannot give rise to ambiguous interpretation on the part of tribunals, either administrative tribunals or ordinary courts of law, and we would have liked the way members are appointed, not so much how they are appointed as whom they represent, to be extremely clear.
We would have liked to be able to proceed from lists submitted by both management and labour, along the lines of what we had suggested during consideration of Bill C-64, which established the Human Rights Tribunal and reviewed the Employment Equity Act. We had asked for lists which could have been used by the government.
You will understand that the minute it becomes clear, the minute it requires a commitment, the government tries to evade the issue. All the amendments in the third group follow the same logic: We say that it is true that, in the whole issue of labour relations, we should, as legislators, seek some balance between the rights and obligations of the employer on the one hand, and the rights and obligations of the unions on the other hand, keeping in mind that in our society we recognize the right to strike, as the ultimate pressure tactic, but according to very clear guidelines.
What we were trying to do, regarding the board and some governance issues like the creation of new tribunals, as allowed by Bill C-64, regarding compensation for their full or part time members, regarding travel and entertainment expenses, was give the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development the power to examine all the questions relating to the Canada Labour Code, so that it could study the whole matter and hold hearings.
I think this is a very healthy reflex we have always had since becoming the official opposition in this House, to make sure that the committees are involved in making decisions on a number of questions.
Never did we think an amendment like this one could obstruct the work of the Canada Labour Relations Board and the various tribunals that will be created; never did we intend or think, even in the boldest of our amendments, that this could be a stalling tactic preventing us from having a diligent board and a speedy process.
Let me give you an example. During the clause by clause consideration of the bill, I was with the hon. member for Mercier, who has 20 or so years of experience in the field of labour relations. Not many parliamentarians in this House can match that.
I would like to remind you that, when, as the official opposition, we were presented with a provision which we really felt would enable the Canada industrial relations board, formerly the Canada Labour Relations Board, to operate much faster and much more efficiently, we gave it our unconditional support-as the minutes will testify-because, when the clause by clause study of Bill C-66 first began, we as parliamentarians realized that there were a number of concerns about the board.
Some stakeholders, labour in particular, felt the internal workings of the board itself were cumbersome. We welcomed with great pleasure and enthusiasm the preliminary hearings on disclosure of evidence. I sense a certain reaction from you, Mr. Speaker, because you are very concerned about anything that relates to the law. We are very pleased by the fact that the board can sit with only one person. Obviously, when there is only one person involved, the issues discussed are very specific.
Therefore, anything that helps streamline the process will get the unequivocal support of the official opposition. For the sake of the board's legitimacy, integrity and effectiveness, it would be a good thing if, as regards the issue of travel and living expenses-and the makeup of a panel when deemed appropriate by the chairperson, since it is a prerogative of the chairperson to convene such a panel and to direct its composition according to very specific instructions-the human resources development committee could take part in the process.
The parliamentary secretary will correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that, during the last election campaign, government members, that is the Liberals, said they hoped that House committees would play a greater role, that parliamentary committees would be much more closely involved in the decision-making process than they currently are.
This is precisely the underlying philosophy behind the amendments now before the House. Is democracy not something that is very healthy? Is it not reassuring for those who are watching us to know that the official opposition hopes that House committees, which are made up of duly elected members of Parliament, can be involved in a number of decisions that are important to the governance of this country? This is what we are talking about.
Again, on a number of occasions, we have been very supportive of any clause in the bill that streamlines the process, so as to alleviate the backlog of cases before the Canada Labour Relations Board.
I simply cannot imagine the government rejecting these amendments, since they are directly inspired by the Liberal Party's philosophy, as stated in the red book.