Mr. Chairman, I move:
That clause 20 of Bill C-76 be amended by replacing lines 25 to 36 with the following:
“20(1) The Governor in Council shall implement the recommendations of the report of the Conciliation Board to the chairperson of the Public Service Staff Relations Board as delivered to the parties on March 19, 1999”.
If we have any real commitment to the whole process of free collective bargaining, if it has not fallen completely by the wayside, we will accept the recommendations of the conciliation officer. The government and the Public Service Alliance jointly went into conciliation in good faith thinking that the outcome would be recommendations by that board. The board made the presentation after considering all the facts put before it. It carefully looked at the idea of harmonizing the corrections officers with the RCMP, but it actually fell short of that. It therefore is not a very radical recommendation. It is very much a compromised position in the best spirit of a good conciliation officer's report.
We believe that we have put this whole thing to bed in a peaceful way and have sent a good message to the country. We all want to go to bed. We could stop short of this heavy-handed intervention of back to work legislation. We could have a negotiated settlement, or the next best thing to it, which is the implementation of the recommendations of the conciliation board.
I would ask for the support of the House for the motion.