Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. Absolutely, yes. The non-public funds is an agency within the Department of National Defence. We have members who work, technically, for National Defence. They work with the Canadian Forces morale and family services, and they provide support work fo

Human Resources committee  Certainly. Again, we also enter into maintenance of activities agreements, which are basically essential services agreements. I do know that there's some concern about the supply chain and the flow of goods. That's not a concern, because we have these maintenance agreements, thes

Human Resources committee  I don't have a number at my fingertips to give you, but you're absolutely right. When you bring in a replacement worker, are you doing your due diligence to make sure that the person has the qualifications to do the duties being requested? That may be the operation of heavy equip

Human Resources committee  You're not going to hire a replacement worker unless you're on strike. You're going to hire a contractor to do this job 12 months of the year. There is the difference. A replacement worker is going to be called in to do my job, while I'm out striking on the picket line. Things

Human Resources committee  There's nothing worse than a replacement worker—I'll make that very clear. There's nothing worse than a replacement worker going in to do somebody else's job, while they're out on strike trying to make more money and to do better for their family. There's nothing worse than that.

Human Resources committee  I think it has gotten worse, as far as contracting out is concerned. I was pleased to see in last year's budget, the 2023 budget, that they're reducing the use of outside contracting. They're going to reduce that. That's good. I think the announcement made yesterday by Minister

Human Resources committee  Yes. If it's left in there, then it's a workaround for employers.

Human Resources committee  This legislation was needed yesterday. There's no need to delay this legislation as long as has been suggested in the piece of legislation. As I said in my submission, when you really look at what would be a reasonable time frame—and I understand it can't be done immediately—when

Human Resources committee  I think anybody would feel demoted or devalued. If I'm sitting here, and it's my job to do these duties, and somebody else has been hired from outside as an external contractor to oversee these duties or do the same duties, that can be very demoralizing. There's no doubt about th

Human Resources committee  Any time any government contracts out, the anxiety level rises within the employees, and understandably so. It's always, “Am I next?” Yes, any time a government contracts out public service work, the anxiety level definitely increases. There's no doubt about it.

Human Resources committee  I can't comment on that. I don't know. Mr. Weber is certainly in a better position than I am to respond to that.

Human Resources committee  Yes, that is a major concern within our membership.

Human Resources committee  For example, the folks I'm going to see right after this meeting who are on strike are non-public funds employees. They work for an agency; they're not part of the federal public service. The members whom I talked about out in Comox in British Columbia work for IMP Aerospace. Wh

Human Resources committee  Absolutely, 100%. Any time the government moves forward with a project and they don't consult the unions, it usually turns into chaos, a disaster. It's just like the Phoenix pay system. All kinds of promises were made about the savings of the Phoenix pay system. The Phoenix pay

Human Resources committee  Again, any time you go outside and do any kind of contracting out and you're not consulting with the people performing the duties, then it's going to be a disaster. Studies have shown time after time that contracting out public sector work costs more money, doesn't come in on tim