Mr. Speaker, historically, there may have been times when the government was justified in passing special legislation, such as when there were strikes at certain ports. I remember the case in Vancouver involving health services that were truly essential to people. At the time, there were negotiations with the opposition parties to quickly draft a bill that appointed an arbitrator but gave him complete freedom.
I did not hear the member talk about that in his speech. In both of this government's pieces of back-to-work legislation—Canada Post and this one—there have been conditions. The arbitrator will not be given complete freedom; the government is imposing certain restrictions, such as forcing the arbitrator to choose one party's demand over the other, or simply, as was the case with the postal strike, setting wage conditions in advance. That aspect of the bill is absolutely detrimental to future negotiations, especially in the public service.