Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  It does not preclude...and right now obviously the Canada Industrial Relations Board already has a number of powers under part I of the code. There is a privative clause there, but that does not prevent somebody from challenging a decision, and that's been done, at times successf

Finance committee  Just to clarify, do you mean a claim for unpaid wages?

Finance committee  Basically there is no maximum in terms of amounts; however, there is a maximum period that can be covered, and this is what will actually be changing. If somebody files a complaint for unpaid wages, and let's assume the person is still employed with the employer, it will be pos

Finance committee  Currently it is possible to go back 12 months, or up to 24 months for vacation pay. What changes now is that it will be 24 months for any wages or other amounts provided for under part III.

Finance committee  Our standards will be more similar to those of Ontario. Several jurisdictions have put certain limits in terms of time period that can be covered by payment orders. It will make it more generous than it was before in terms of recovering wages, but it would be within the norm of p

Finance committee  Absolutely. We need to make sure that everybody is well aware of the obligations. I should perhaps mention as well there will be transitional provisions, so things will apply as of the date of coming into force. We're not going to go back in time, and penalize individuals for som

Finance committee  It will be by order in council. At this point, different provisions could come into force on different dates. That's why it may be done on a staggered basis over a 36-month period. We expect that probably the last amendments to come into force would be those related to administra

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. As you know, every jurisdiction in Canada has its own system. The legislation of each one is fairly different, but they tend to have some points in common. According to our analysis, all the measures proposed in clause 17 of the bill exist elsewhere i

Finance committee  Yes, there are privative clauses.

Finance committee  Just to give a bit of context, there are privative clauses and there have been such clauses in the past in the Canada Labour Code. The objective is to ensure to the extent possible that existing adjudicative functions under the code are not challenged unduly in court. Essential

Finance committee  Actually, it's a $200 fee, not a $200,000 fee, just to be absolutely clear.

Finance committee  Basically, the rationale, the objective here is to improve compliance and to encourage employers who owe wages to their employees to pay up as early as possible. We are aware that there have been circumstances where certain employers, perhaps more unscrupulous, would actually tr

Finance committee  Yes. The objective is to be much more effective at recovering wages. Part of the issue is how quickly we can recover wages that are owed to employees, rather than having a process that really is very long and onerous. This is to improve effectiveness. It is not a money-making sc

Finance committee  Thank you. Several other amendments would be made specifically to the part III labour standards of the Canada Labour Code. This is in order to ensure that employees can avail themselves of existing labour standards rights and protections and more effectively recover unpaid wage