Finance committee  No, I think Ms. Roy zeroed in on the problem quite nicely.

Finance committee  If you mean in terms of the costs or procedures, I think my colleague hit the nail on the head as far as our problems with the bill go.

Finance committee  My presentation highlighted three areas, particularly strikes. When members are forced to strike as their only bargaining tool, then services will not be provided to Canadians. We question how that can save taxpayers' money. We only have to look at the foreign service officers to see a very recent and tangible example of that.

Finance committee  I welcome that question, because if you look at our collective agreement, you'll see that we're the only union that has performance review embedded in our collective agreement. We can't run away from it.

Finance committee  I think that when it comes to my membership we're notoriously underpaid and—

Finance committee  The stats with our members? Yes.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I think they'd welcome it as well. And if it's not in their collective agreement, they're already subject to performance review. We wonder why those guidelines aren't being implemented. If you want to fire a crown prosecutor for bungling a case, you can do it. It's just a question of implementing what's already there.

Finance committee  And they do.

Finance committee  I'm fascinated by this obsession about these faceless, nameless people, because the tools are in place, and if there were employees in my shop—because I was in private practice for seven years—and they were hiding and seeking and surfing on the Internet, they'd be gone. Managers in the public service have those tools.

Finance committee  Why are we talking about performance management in the context of...[Inaudible—Editor]?

Finance committee  If you don't mind, I'm going to respond in English as I'm more comfortable in that language.

Finance committee  Your point is well taken and it goes back to due process. Again, the rush is inexplicable. We will have these precise issues discussed at the Supreme Court of Canada. Leave was granted, and they will be discussed at great length. To us, as lawyers and as rational people with common sense, rushing these changes in when very similar changes will be considered in due course defies common sense.

Finance committee  Our concern is that these changes don't pass the smell test when it comes to meaningful consultations. The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld meaningful consultations as a concept in labour relations. How can you have an arbitrator whose hands are tied as to what he or she can consider?

Finance committee  We rush to change for the sake of change. It creates bad law and bad law creates bad situations. I think now more than ever we need to take a step back and really think about what we're doing and why we're doing it, because these changes will impact labour relations for years to come.