Mr. Speaker, one of the problems, of course, with an omnibus budget bill is that one can pick and choose what one decides to talk about and skim over some of the rest. With the Conservatives, unfortunately, the devil is always in the details when it comes to their budget bills.
I want to ask about two issues in particular that I did not hear the member mention and that trouble me.
As members will recall, I have quite often risen in the House to talk about issues related to Canada Post as they were brought to me both by constituents, and when I was the labour critic, by communities right across the country with respect to post office closures, staff layoffs and particularly with respect to collective bargaining. When I was asking those questions, the government always said, “Oh, it's an arm's-length relationship, and we couldn't possibly comment.”
Well, in this budget bill we learn that those are the shortest arms in the world. In this budget bill, the government is interfering quite directly in the collective bargaining rights of the workers at not only Canada Post but also CBC and with respect to VIA Rail.
I ask the member quite specifically: why is this budget bill meddling in the managerial autonomy of crown corporations?
Second, there are provisions in this budget that also deal with the Investment Canada Act.
The member would also know that on a number of occasions I have raised the story of the U.S. Steel buyout of Stelco under the Investment Canada Act where absolutely no production or employment guarantees were met by that company. The government took them to court, and was winning every step of the way, but then folded like a cheap shirt.
How do these Investment Canada Act provisions actually help the people who are now for the third time, in three collective agreement negotiations, locked out by the company?