House of Commons Hansard #14 of the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was post.

Topics

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

The question is on the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:20 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

No.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

All those in favour of the motion will please say yea.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:20 p.m.

Some hon. members

Yea.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

All those opposed will please say nay.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:20 p.m.

Some hon. members

Nay.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

In my opinion the nays have it.

And five or more members having risen:

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Vote #28

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

I declare the motion carried. When shall the bill be read a third time? By leave, now?

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:30 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:30 p.m.

Conservative

Lisa Raitt Conservative Halton, ON

moved that the bill be read the third time and passed.

Mr. Speaker, I will be brief. After all it has been approximately 57 and a half hours since we commenced the introduction of this legislation.

The position of the government has always been very clear that the best agreement is the one that the parties reach by themselves. However, in the case of this union, CUPW, and this organization, Canada Post, that was not a possibility.

Over the past 57 hours, our government has explained the history of the dispute and the efforts we have taken to both conciliate and mediate it. We have also provided services continuously to the parties throughout this debate. As a final resort, we have had to introduce legislation that does two things.

First, it provides for a resumption of postal services so that those Canadians who have been affected, as well as small businesses and charities, can get on with their work, which will also protect the economy.

Second, we introduced this legislation to provide a fair and balanced process for the parties to reach the conclusion of this collective agreement.

The government was given a very strong mandate by Canadians to continue our efforts in this economic recovery. That is exactly why we have introduced this legislation at this time, to ensure the mail service continues now and into the future.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:30 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Mr. Speaker, the minister says the best possible collective agreement is one that results from negotiation and agreement between the two parties. Even if we do not agree with the government's bill, it proposes a final offer. On the question of wages, why has the government included a lower wage offer in the bill than the employer was prepared to pay?

I know what the minister's answer will be. She will say that this is consistent with the terms for the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Why did she say in her testimony that the best collective agreements are the result of agreement between the two parties? Does she realize that the message she is sending to the employer is that if it is unable to negotiate, it can come and ask for the government's support to get something better?

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:30 p.m.

Conservative

Lisa Raitt Conservative Halton, ON

Mr. Speaker, what we are saying is that taking eight months to reach an agreement is a long period of time, especially when a work stoppage is involved either through rolling strikes or indeed through a lockout.

It is unacceptable to the Canadian public and we will introduce legislation that returns workers to work and preserves the economy.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:30 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin, once again, by thanking the employees of the House of Commons. I thank them for the work that they do for Parliament, the seat of democracy, and the place in which democratic debates take place. I would also like to thank our security guards, who worked very hard. I thank our employees, from every political party, who have spent many hours and days here, in Parliament. I thank our pages, who have worked here day and night in the service of members of Parliament. Thank you all so much.

I just thanked our employees. The bill that was debated and adopted a moment ago has to do with the postal workers who deliver our mail day in and day out.

It is not pleasant for anyone when things grind to a halt at Canada Post. The Canada Post Corporation is a crown corporation that is required to provide services to all Canadians. It is unfortunate that a debate had to be held on the future of workers, their pension funds, their salaries, and their working conditions. The government tried to suggest that we were somehow against small and medium-sized businesses, but that is not true.

There are, of course, small and medium-sized businesses in my riding. If these small and medium-sized businesses were not there—I am referring to the shops, restaurants and small factories that provide a multitude of services—in what kind of world would we be living? It would be crazy to think that anyone could be against our small and medium-sized businesses. I can assure the hon. members that whatever the Conservatives would have Canadians believe is simply not true. Small and medium-sized businesses apparently account for 75% of jobs in Canada. This includes our own family members. Some of us have brothers and sisters who own small businesses. How could anyone object to that?

I myself worked for several years for a big company called Noranda Inc. The Conservatives would have hon. members believe that I had no respect for Noranda Inc. My only comment was that if the company made a profit, it should share it with the workers that made it possible. That is all we asked.

The mail carriers participated in the bargaining process, however the minister remarked in her speech that negotiations had dragged on for eight months without an agreement being reached. If negotiations went on for eight months with no agreement, then clearly the employer, Canada Post, was partly to blame. Under Canadian law, workers have the right to unionize.

I will mention the case of certain women in my riding, Red Cross auxiliaries who worked for that organization under a contract from the government of New Brunswick. The government’s money had been disbursed to the Red Cross to permit it to do what the government did not want to do. The employees, the Red Cross auxiliaries who went to people's homes every morning to help seniors, were paid $4.25 an hour. After 2,080 hours of work, they received an increase that brought their wage to $5.35 an hour.

You can check the records. If these women working for the Red Cross were sick for more than 10 days, the Red Cross lowered their wage to $4.85 an hour. It’s shameful.

These women who went to work were not even entitled to statutory holidays. Did they not have the right to form a union to bargain and increase their wage to $7 an hour in an initial collective agreement which would grant them their rightful statutory holidays?

This is what the Conservatives are saying. They are giving the unions a bad image. It’s unfair. As for the women working in the fish processing plants at minimum wage, they are now up to $12 an hour. That was not thanks to the employer.

No one can stop me from standing up for the workers, the men and women, our fathers and mothers who have worked. No one can stop me from speaking up in House of Commons on their behalf. No one.

What the government is doing is no mistake. It has done this because it wanted to, rather than having faith in bargaining and the collective agreement. Why table a bill that offers less than the employer was prepared to give the employees after they tried to exert pressure by organizing rotating strikes?

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:35 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:40 p.m.

An hon. member

Keep talking.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:40 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

That is not very polite. I do not think it is very polite to tell me to keep talking. I think I was doing well until I was interrupted.

The employees have the right to go on rotating strikes: the Minister herself said that she received only a few calls and emails. That is what she said in the House of Commons and to the media. One might almost think she was not satisfied and that things were not sufficiently stirred up, as if they had to be stirred up in order to pass a bill. The public was not complaining. I received no calls from people unhappy about the rotating strikes. But as soon as the lockout was in place, down came the hammer and the bill was tabled. We have worked hard all weekend, and I raise my hat to the members who remained in the House of Commons and fought all weekend to give the union and the employer the chance for further meetings. That is democracy.

I hope all Canadians are proud of us. The day we cease to have a Parliament, our country will become like those to which we send our soldiers to bring democracy. The House of Commons belongs to Canadians, and this is where the debate must occur. It has occurred, and we are proud of that fact. We gave the union and the employer the opportunity to meet. However, it is impossible to reach an agreement when the government gives the employer a better offer in a bill, which is completely undemocratic, in my opinion.

Perhaps the Conservatives consider today a funny day in history. They can continue to attack the workers. This government has just sent employers the message to not bother negotiating, because the government will solve their problems. It is inviting employers to turn to the government for help; it will pass bills that will never be in the workers' favour.

That is why I am asking what the workers ever did to this government. Why does it not like them? Why does it not like the people who have provided services to us for the past three or four days, the security guards, and everyone? The next time, it will be CBC/Radio-Canada, and then it will be CN. All of them will be paying at the checkout in the next four years under this Conservative government. Is that the kind of society we want? Do we really want to attack workers?

Even if it bothers the Conservatives, I want to thank the unions who work day after day and who have the mandate, under Canadian legislation, to represent workers. Political parties need leaders, but so do the unions. So let us respect our laws and our leaders, the people with the mandate to do things for the society. If the government did not want this lockout, all it needed to do was call Canada Post to get the locks taken off the doors. It would have been easy.

The public will see that the Conservatives are wearing big smiles on their faces today. On the one hand, 33 million people were affected by the lockout, but so were the 45,000 postal workers because of this government. Who will it be next time? Perhaps it will be citizens, seniors, the disabled or the workers. And it will be because of the Conservative government.

We even asked the Prime Minister to suspend the House of Commons for one day, for the Quebec holiday, Saint-Jean-Baptiste day. Once again, he said no. Just for that, he should be ashamed. He has no respect for Quebeckers. Does he not like Quebeckers, as one of my colleagues just said? He does not like the workers, but he likes big business.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:45 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

Order. The hon. member still has six minutes left to conclude his remarks, so I would ask all members to come to order. The more disorder there is, the more time the member will have.

The hon. member for Acadie—Bathurst.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:45 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Mr. Speaker, they have no respect for Quebeckers, and from what I can see, they have no respect for you either.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:45 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

Order, order. Let us let the hon. member finish his remarks.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:45 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Mr. Speaker, they were beginning to fail to show respect for you. It is time to make them stop.

Once again, we hope the hemorrhaging will stop and the government will think about what it is doing. Is this what the next four years are going to be like? Is the government planning to target working men and women? It is on the wrong track. Perhaps it is deliberately taking that direction, but it should think twice. People will not stand for it.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:45 p.m.

Liberal

Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS

Mr. Speaker, I stand to comment on the bill at third reading. I am quite confident, as we enter hour 58 of the debate, that there is not a whole lot of juice left in this orange. At the risk of saying something that may have been said earlier in the House, a risk which did not concern a whole lot of people over the course of the last 58 hours, I, too, on behalf of the Liberal Party want to thank the officials, our professional table officers and all the Hill staff for being around.

I really want to single out the pages who do a great service in the House. That just was not a politician being shameless and playing to the hometown crowd, I do it for a reason. They were supposed to finish on Thursday. As we know, the pages are salaried employees, so they have been here as volunteers for the last 58 hours. Therefore, I really want to thank them for that.

My comments will be brief. Again, as we had said, we put our points on the record. Early on we were very concerned, as a party, with the way the legislation was put forward. We felt it tipped the scales far too much in Canada Post's favour. For all those paying attention to the debate, we tried to reinforce the fact that this was a lockout. Knowing that this legislation was coming, gave Canada Post the upper hand. That was why we ended up in the situation in which we were. We felt the final offer selection did nothing to help the union in this situation.

We felt that amendments could have been put forward far sooner. We thought it would have been a much more efficient process to table those amendments and bring them forward sooner. Maybe if we would have put that time on the amendments, then maybe we might have had some of the changes for which we tried to advocate.

Therefore, we have a great deal of concern with the legislation and we will vote against it in the final round.

Again, I thank my caucus for the effort put forward. Our whip's office and leadership—

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:45 p.m.

Some hon. members

Oh, oh!

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:50 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

Order, please. I am not cutting the hon. member off. I am trying to get a little order for him to conclude his remarks.

The hon. member for Cape Breton--Canso.

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians ActGovernment Orders

June 25th, 7:50 p.m.

Liberal

Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS

Mr. Speaker, in fact, we laid out and put forward our amendments in good faith and hoped that we could make an impact on this legislation. Obviously the government entertained none of them and so we are this situation. It is unfortunate, but at the end of the day I am happy not only to see that mail service will resume eventually, but that the workers are back on the job.

These workers have suffered over the last number of weeks and we have brought those stories to the House. I know a number of stories were shared about the inconvenience to Canadians, but think about the hardship the workers have gone through, those who have had medical benefits cancelled, have missed paycheques and have had to provide for their families and have been unable to work the last number of weeks. Therefore, understand that part of the lockout.