House of Commons Hansard #92 of the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was workers.
The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill S-3, An Act to amend the Offshore Health and Safety Act, be read the second time and referred to a committee.
The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources has 10 minutes remaining in his time for his remarks, and that will be followed a period of 10 minutes for questions and comments.
We now go to the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources.
Marc Serré LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources
Mr. Speaker, I will pick up where I left off before question period.
As I mentioned earlier, our government is consistently working to improve the regulatory framework, and we have to do this the right way. This is strengthened by consulting with others, by consulting with unions, companies and Canadians.
Stakeholders objected to a number of unnecessary administrative burdens. We agreed and scrapped them in order to cut the red tape. Another challenge is that not all interim regulations for 2014 complied with international standards because the government of the day cut corners in order to rush this through. That caused problems and uncertainty with rigs that came from other jurisdictions.
Therefore, in 2017, in the middle of this, we had to fix it, and it took time to clean this mess up. As well, we have to remember this is happening against the backdrop of a global pandemic, which changed everything. It changed how we work and where we work. It is not the reason we did not meet our deadline, but it has certainly exacerbated the delays.
For example, we were scheduled to start full-day, in-person drafting sessions the week of March 23 and then the pandemic hit. Suddenly, we were all working from home, with justice department drafters left to figure out how to do this virtually and securely. The pandemic, simply put, cost us time. All our technical advisers at both the federal and provincial levels are with their respective occupational health and safety departments. They have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.
Despite these factors, I agree this has taken too long, but I assure the House we will get this done in the right way. Natural Resources Canada has a detailed implementation schedule, working in co-operation with the Department of Justice and the two provincial governments. We are close, and the Minister of Natural Resources has directed his officials to get this done by year's end.
Bill S-3 would give us the breathing space to get there. Safety is paramount and any shorter time frame would mean shortcuts would be taken, and when it comes to the health and safety of workers, shortcuts are unacceptable.
We must provide these workers with the best protections by adopting a world-class safety regime. I believe in it, and I support it.
Bill S-3 will really help us, and I urge members to support it.
We have spoken to our colleagues across the aisle on the importance of passing this bill quickly, and I want to express my appreciation to them and to the House leaders for agreeing to that. We continue to do the necessary work of protecting our workers today and in the future.
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, I welcome my colleague who has recently been named the parliamentary secretary and I am looking forward to working with him on these very important files.
In the first part of his speech, which was regrettably split in half here, I did notice that he said this is an important issue to the minister as it is in his actual backyard, Newfoundland. However, the workers in the minister's backyard have had no regulations for four months. This was passed in the Senate in December 2020, on regulations that lapsed in December 2020.
When we pass this bill in the House of Commons, it has retroactive legislation. If this is so important to the minister, why has it taken him so long to bring it to this House for us to debate and get through the process?
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with my hon. colleague on the natural resources committee.
Yes, this is why we need to get the bill passed in the House as quickly as possible. It will be retroactive so that we make sure that we get all of these regulations that protect the workers' health and safety and also implement all these different labour codes.
I encourage all members in the House to ensure that we pass this legislation as quickly possible so that we can protect our workers and establish these health and safety regulations to be implemented.
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary explained the importance of this legislation and we agree with speedy passage, but he has not explained why it has taken six years since the government has been in power to actually develop these permanent regulations. He certainly has not explained why they were not keeping their eye on the ball and allowed the regulations to expire. There are no enforceable safety regulations in the offshore since January 1. That is a shame and the minister needs to explain why nobody had their eye on the ball. We cannot blame that on the pandemic.
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Mr. Speaker, as we indicated as soon as the bill is passed, it will be retroactive to protect the workers, but these regulations are very complex. There are over 300 pages. A lot of work has been done. When we look at international standards, when we look at the co-operation and the dialogue between the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Government of Nova Scotia, there are three governments involved. There have been a lot of stakeholder engagements to make sure we get this right.
Yes, in the last year there has been the pandemic, but we want to make sure we get this right and the consultation and the level of engagement by all levels of government is really important. We are taking this seriously. There have been delays. We have to move forward and I appreciate the support and co-operation of all the members of the House to get this passed.
Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC
Mr. Speaker, I share some of the rage with the hon. member for St. John's East on this matter. I can remember the Ocean Ranger going down in 1982 with the loss of lives of 84 people, but more recently, the helicopter crash that took place, the Cougar flight 491. Let us all pause for a moment in memory of all those lives lost through the negligence of the regulations and the safety of the offshore and the Newfoundland and Labrador workers who go to work in the offshore. The Cougar flight crash in 2009 led to an inquiry. Mr. Justice Wells made specific recommendations. Yes, we have to get this passed, otherwise as the leader of the Unifor said, it is a #epicfail.
In the meantime, where is the independent safety regulator for our offshore? There is one in the U.S., U.K., Norway and Australia. Why is the government ignoring the recommendations from the safety inquiry of Justice Wells?
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Mr. Speaker, with the tragedies that have occurred offshore on the rigs, it is really important that we do this. We are getting Bill S-3 done and are getting it right. We are making sure that the safety regulations and labour codes will make sure that we get this right.
We are continuing from the framework of 2014, and we have to make sure that it is implemented in the right way. We will continue to look at other ways to protect the health and safety of our workers. It is important that we look to do this by December 2021.
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Mr. Speaker, the member indicates that this takes a high level of engagement with governments and stakeholders and that everything will be retroactive, as if somehow that will make up for the lack of proper oversight here. It should not have taken years for the Liberals to finally decide to work on this. They are now putting our workers in such precarious circumstances.
What groups, stakeholders and governments have they already worked with, and what results have they had from those conversations?
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Mr. Speaker, for the engagement, we have not only looked to the provincial governments. There have also been many stakeholder meetings. We are now ready to move forward with implementing this.
For the workers, it is really important that we establish a framework to make sure that we do this in the right way. As I said, the bill is about protections, and within the next months we will make sure that it is implemented. With the co-operation of the House, we can do so by the end of this year, and then we will move forward with providing other supports to our offshore workers.
Consultation is important, and we have done extensive consultations. We need to continue to make sure that we get the bill right.
Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC
Mr. Speaker, I would like to come back to what was said about Unifor, which criticized the government for letting the transitional regulations expire.
I would like to draw a parallel and hear from the parliamentary secretary about how, once again, it seems that the Liberals let files languish while they drag their feet, as we saw this week with the Port of Montreal. There is this tendency to not take action when it is needed or, at least, to not act more quickly.
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her important question about workers, Unifor and unions.
Obviously that is important. We are committed, and we are are holding consultations with Unifor and many unions. It is important for us to move forward, while taking into account the 300 pages of regulations. We also need to take into account the Canada Labour Code, workplace health and safety, the consultations between the federal government and two provinces, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, and a possible election.
It is really important to continue the work that we have already started. We said that the delay was unacceptable. However, we did the work and we will continue to do more.
It is important that the House support Bill S-3 with the changes made by the Senate so we can ensure that the bill passes by the end of the year.
Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC
Mr. Speaker, a fundamental flaw here is the conflict of interest baked into the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board. Without an independent regulator, for now the safety of workers is in the hands of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, which by its very creation requires that it increase production of oil and gas in the offshore.
How can it be seen as a regulator that does not suffer from a conflict of interest when it obviously does?
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Mr. Speaker, I am not aware of the details of what the hon. member mentioned, so I will take this up. However, I want to assure her that our regulatory bodies are independent. They work closely to make sure they provide the best health and safety for our workers. I assure the member that we will do our best to make sure that the questions she has asked today will be addressed.
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, as my first order of business, I will ask for the unanimous consent of the House to split my time with the hon. member for West Nova.
The Deputy Speaker Conservative Bruce Stanton
Are there any objections to the hon. member splitting his time with another member?
Hearing none, there is consent.
We will go back to the hon. member for Calgary Centre.
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. speaker, I am pleased to finally have the opportunity to speak to Bill S-3 virtually in the House of Commons.
As I am here safe while doing my job, I am reminded that offshore workers do not have the same protections. In fact, it has been 120 days since offshore oil workers were stripped of their health and safety regulations because the Liberal government let the temporary safety regulations expire. Safety at work should not be a luxury or a privilege. It should be the most basic guarantee given to workers. By failing to keep workers safe on the job, the Liberal government is failing in its most basic responsibility.
The Conservatives understand how important this is. In 2009, 17 people on board Cougar Helicopters flight 491 were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. It was a routine flight carrying them to work on an offshore oil rig.
The Conservative government at the time knew that we needed to do whatever we could to prevent another tragedy, so we got to work without delay on completely overhauling the health and safety regime for the offshore oil industry. In 2004, we put in place world-class safety protections for offshore oil workers.
The Liberals have had five years to finalize permanent regulations after that regime was introduced. It failed to meet the deadline in 2019, and instead extended the temporary regulations by another year, until December 31, 2020. When the Liberals extended the deadline in 2018, they buried the time limit extension in an omnibus budget bill. They probably missed an opportunity to do this last year, because they decided not to present a government budget for two years.
The government brought this bill forward in the Senate in December 2020, days before the interim regulations for worker safety in the offshore were due to expire. Anticipating the inevitable reality that the House of Commons would not be able to see it through our legislative process prior to the end of the year, the legislation includes language to retroactively impose the transitional regulations that lapsed on December 31, 2020. In the interim, we have a regulatory void.
Today is April 30, 2021, and it has been 120 days since the Liberals let those regulations expire. Offshore oil workers are back where they were in 2009, when the Cougar crash happened. Frankly, it is shameful that the Liberals have allowed things to get to this point. Workers have gone months without protection. It is complete negligence of the government's basic responsibilities, and there is no reason for us to be in this position today.
Offshore oil workers do some of Canada's most challenging and, sometimes, most risky work, and they deserve better protection on the job. However, after six years, we are not here today to finalize permanent safety regulations for the offshore oil industry. Instead, we are just trying to get the temporary regulations back in place so that we can keep workers safe while the Liberals ask for more extensions.
I will be clear on our position on Bill S-3. As Conservatives, protecting workers is our top priority. We support getting this bill passed as quickly as possible so that workers do not have to go another day without safety protections. I have personally been asking the government, over the past several months, when it was finally going to move Bill S-3 forward, because every day that we wait is another day that offshore workers are unprotected.
These delays and excuses need to stop. There is nothing more important than Canadians' safety when they show up for work every day. We cannot end up back in that position again.
Offshore oil workers need permanent protection in terms of health and safety. We will not stop pushing until that happens.
In the meantime, Bill S-3 is an urgently needed stopgap to protect workers in the offshore oil industry. I want to thank the Senate for passing this legislation as quickly as possible, and I hope we can do the same here in the House of Commons.
We in the House need to recognize that even though the government is delaying, offshore oil work does not stop. There are people going to work every day in the offshore oil industry who are continuing to hold themselves to the highest safety standards, even without government regulations. Their work does not stop, and they are committed to keeping themselves and their neighbours safe, even when the government is failing to do its job.
I want to recognize my colleague in the Senate, Senator Wells, who proposed an amendment to Bill S-3 to shorten the extension time of the temporary regulations from what was originally introduced as a two-year extension down to a one-year extension. We know from committee testimony in the Senate that these regulations are pretty much completed, as they should be after six years. Based on the government's own planning in early 2020, a year is plenty of time to get these regulations finalized.
Members may not understand why we cannot just keep renewing the temporary regulations, but as someone who is very familiar with the oil and gas industry, I want to underscore how urgent permanent regulations are for the offshore industry. Technology in the oil and gas industry has advanced leaps and bounds since 2014. The temporary regulations introduced in 2014 were used as a stopgap measure while permanent regulations could be finalized to keep up with technological changes and keep workers protected in the long term. This is becoming more and more urgent as technology advances beyond what was available in 2014 and beyond the protections in that set of regulations.
It needs to be a priority for the government to implement permanent updated regulations as soon as possible. That is why it is important for this to be the last extension of the stopgap measures. Workers need up-to-date permanent regulations. They cannot go another two years without updated regulations, and they should never again go another 120 days unprotected by any health and safety regulations.
I will end my speech today by reminding the government that these regulations are not some far-removed technical set of rules that can be put off another few years while it focuses on flashier legislation. These are regulations that directly impact people's lives and livelihoods. They mean that workers can do their jobs, that they know they will be safe and that families can trust that their loved ones will come home to them safe at the end of the day. Communities will be able to trust they will not experience a repeat of the absolute devastation of Cougar flight 491 in 2009, which killed 17 people, or of the Ocean Ranger disaster in 1982, which killed all 84 people on board.
The Liberal government needs to stop telling offshore workers, their families and their communities that they do not matter. No one can express this better than Robert Decker, the sole survivor of Cougar flight 491. Understandably, after what he experienced he rarely speaks in public, but he wrote to the Senate about Bill S-3. The fact that he had to relive his trauma to urge the government to act should tell us all we need to know about how dire this situation is.
What he has to say is extremely powerful, and I will leave members with his words. He said:
...those charged with the legislative oversight of safety in the offshore have not learned and don’t care.
While I no longer work in the offshore, my friends and former workmates still do. I want them to have every opportunity to return home to their families. It is not a lot to ask.
Chris d'Entremont Conservative West Nova, NS
Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask the million-dollar question. Why does the member think it has taken six years for the government to get to the point that we need to give another extension before regulations are put in place?
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, we have been asking that question ourselves ever since this file landed on our desk. What is taking so long? It was five years, then a one-year extension and then a request for another two-year extension, which we managed to push back to a one-year extension.
We need these regulations done. There are 300 pages of them. This is the basics of governing, and the current government is failing at it. As we noted earlier, this is the minister's backyard, and if he is not paying attention to the workers in his backyard and making sure they are safe while they go to work, he is failing at his most basic responsibilities.
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Mr. Speaker, I send my thanks to the hon. member for emphasizing the failure to notice the fact that this regulation was expiring. This is absolutely shocking and a gross dereliction of the duty of the government, whatever excuses it might have for not getting it done, which I do not think would be valid either.
Would the hon. member also care to comment on the fact that we do not have an independent regulator of the offshore? His government's legislation did not allow for that, despite the recommendations of the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Justice Wells and the offshore helicopter safety inquiry, as well as those of the unions involved. We have the examples of Norway, Australia and the United Kingdom. Why do we not have an independent regulator for safety of the offshore, as is required to avoid conflict of interest?
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, the effort before us today is to pass the regulation to make sure the workers are safe. I think it is incumbent upon us to make sure we look at regimes going forward that will provide for independent oversight of that safety as well. I think it is something that we should consider going forward.
Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC
Mr. Speaker, it is lovely to see you in the Chair.
To my hon. colleague in Calgary Centre, the concerns that I have raised around the nature of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, I think, really need to be exposed in this debate, although I completely agree with him that it is egregious that these safety regulations have been ignored. The need for them is urgent.
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, as well as the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board, do have mandates built into their statutes to expand production of oil and gas. That is fine for a mandate, but they should not then also be in charge of environmental assessment, which they are. They should not be in charge of workers' health and safety. They have a record that does not inspire confidence.
Would my hon. friend from Calgary Centre agree, since all around the world, as my friend from St. John's East just pointed out, there is independent regulation for safety in the offshore, that Canada should do the same?
Greg McLean Conservative Calgary Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, I believe that is much the same question as the one I just answered from the hon. member for St. John's East. I do agree that all governments in their practices need to look forward to what is the best regime to look after workers' safety, in combination with what we are looking at as far as the industry itself goes.
I will repeat that I do think it is something we can look at going forward. Today I am focused on making sure that our workers are protected in the offshore and that the government considers moving this legislation forward as quickly as possible a priority, so those workers would have that protection.
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate the response of my colleague to the last two questions presented to him. I certainly agree.
I would like to bring it up again that the fact that the government would ask for another two years just floors me. We so often find it in front of us with legislation that now has to be passed due to incompetence. Would the member care to comment?