Mr. Speaker, we agree that a management rights clause should be in the bill. The government is proposing to adapt a more targeted management rights clause than that adopted by the Senate to focus on the authorities the commissioner needs to ensure effective police operations.
The adoption of a management rights clause for the RCMP is consistent with the labour relations regime that applies to the rest of the federal public service and with that of other police forces across the country. If there is a dispute between RCMP management and the eventual bargaining agent about what exactly falls within the management rights clause, the dispute would be resolved by the Public Service Labour Relations Board. It is important to emphasize that the management rights clause does not give RCMP management carte blanche to exclude things from collective bargaining.