Speech (committee meeting)

{
    "time": "2024-09-24 12:05:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Mr. Michael Coteau (Don Valley East, Lib.)",
        "fr": "M. Michael Coteau (Don Valley-Est, Lib.)"
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"8585206\" data-originallang=\"en\">Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the opportunity.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585207\" data-originallang=\"en\">I want to thank all of our witnesses today. It's been a really good conversation. In fact, the witnesses on the previous occasion were also very valuable. Thank you for being here and speaking on behalf of Canadians, on behalf of organized labour.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585208\" data-originallang=\"en\">I'm a big supporter of unions. When I first got to the Toronto District School Board, in 2003, we were trying to fix a lot of the damage that common-sense Conservatives did in Ontario to the education system. The last time common-sense Conservatives had power in the province, there was a complete dismantling of public education, to such a degree that we saw more than half of the school days gone because of that labour disruption.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585209\" data-originallang=\"en\">We've had members here talk about the <a data-HoCid=\"291215\" href=\"/politicians/pierre-poilievre/\" title=\"Pierre Poilievre\">leader of the Conservatives</a>' track record on the relationship with organized labour. The fact is that when Bill <a data-HoCid=\"5295287\" href=\"/bills/41-1/C-377/\" title=\"An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (requirements for labour organizations)\">C-377</a> and Bill <a data-HoCid=\"6251920\" href=\"/bills/41-2/C-525/\" title=\"An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code, the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act and the Public Service Labour Relations Act (certification and revocation \u2014 bargaining agent)\">C-525</a> were brought into the House of Commons by the Conservatives, the leader of the Conservatives voted in favour of those bills. So it's not what he's going to do now; we just need to look at the track record of Conservatives to really understand what may happen in the future.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585210\" data-originallang=\"en\">But here we are today, and the reason we're studying this specific topic is to let parliamentarians know and to let Canadians know that when we put in good legislation to support unions\u2014and I think one witness said, \u201cgood legislative action\u201d\u2014it allows us to build a better workforce and increase productivity, but most importantly, it allows for families, for workers, to be protected and to have better-paying jobs. I want to take this opportunity to thank unions for weekends, for holidays, for workplace rules that prevent certain types of injuries, for child labour laws and for pensions. There are so many elements that come from organized labour, and I want to say thank you. I want to be on the record saying thank you for the work that folks do every day to preserve unions.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585211\" data-originallang=\"en\">My big question\u2014and maybe I'll go to you, Mr. Archer\u2014is about what we can do to build on good legislative action in the House of Commons as parliamentarians to better support unions and to make sure, at the end of the day, that we get the legislation right, from all parties, and that we can continue, especially as the economy is changing. We're seeing fewer unionized jobs in certain sectors and a decline in unionized jobs. What can we do to strengthen unions in Canada?</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"8585206\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je vous remercie, monsieur le pr\u00e9sident. Je vous suis reconnaissant de me donner l'occasion d'intervenir.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585207\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je tiens \u00e0 remercier tous nos t\u00e9moins d'aujourd'hui. Nous tenons une excellente conversation. En fait, les t\u00e9moins de la s\u00e9ance pr\u00e9c\u00e9dente ont \u00e9galement \u00e9t\u00e9 tr\u00e8s utiles. Je vous remercie d'\u00eatre ici et de parler au nom des Canadiens, au nom des syndicats.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585208\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je suis un grand partisan des syndicats. Quand je suis arriv\u00e9 au Conseil scolaire du district de Toronto en 2003, nous essayions de r\u00e9parer bon nombre des dommages que les conservateurs pleins de bon sens ont caus\u00e9s au syst\u00e8me d'\u00e9ducation. La derni\u00e8re fois o\u00f9 les conservateurs pleins de bon sens \u00e9taient au pouvoir dans la province, il y a eu un d\u00e9mant\u00e8lement complet de l'\u00e9ducation publique, \u00e0 un point tel que plus de la moiti\u00e9 des journ\u00e9es d'\u00e9cole ont \u00e9t\u00e9 supprim\u00e9es en raison de cette interruption de travail.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585209\" data-originallang=\"en\">Des d\u00e9put\u00e9s ont parl\u00e9 ici du bilan du <a data-HoCid=\"291215\" href=\"/politicians/pierre-poilievre/\" title=\"Pierre Poilievre\">chef des conservateurs</a> dans la relation avec les syndicats. Le fait est que lorsque le projet de loi <a data-HoCid=\"5295287\" href=\"/bills/41-1/C-377/\" title=\"An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (requirements for labour organizations)\">C\u2011377</a> et le projet de loi <a data-HoCid=\"6251920\" href=\"/bills/41-2/C-525/\" title=\"An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code, the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act and the Public Service Labour Relations Act (certification and revocation \u2014 bargaining agent)\">C\u2011525</a> ont \u00e9t\u00e9 pr\u00e9sent\u00e9s \u00e0 la Chambre des communes par les conservateurs, le chef du Parti conservateur a vot\u00e9 en faveur de ces projets de loi. Il ne s'agit pas de savoir ce qu'il va faire maintenant; il suffit de regarder le bilan des conservateurs pour vraiment comprendre ce qui pourrait se passer \u00e0 l'avenir.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585210\" data-originallang=\"en\">Mais nous voici aujourd'hui, et la raison pour laquelle nous \u00e9tudions ce sujet pr\u00e9cis est pour faire savoir aux parlementaires et aux Canadiens que lorsque nous pr\u00e9sentons une bonne mesure l\u00e9gislative pour soutenir les syndicats \u2014 et je pense qu'un t\u00e9moin a parl\u00e9 de \u00ab dispositions l\u00e9gislatives justes \u00bb \u2014, elle nous permet de cr\u00e9er une meilleure main-d'\u0153uvre et d'accro\u00eetre la productivit\u00e9, mais plus important encore, elle permet de prot\u00e9ger les familles et les travailleurs et d'avoir des emplois mieux r\u00e9mun\u00e9r\u00e9s. Je veux profiter de l'occasion pour remercier les syndicats pour les fins de semaine, les cong\u00e9s, les r\u00e8gles relatives au lieu de travail qui pr\u00e9viennent certains types de blessures, les lois sur le travail des enfants et les pensions. Il y a tant d'\u00e9l\u00e9ments qui proviennent des syndicats, et je tiens \u00e0 les remercier. Je tiens \u00e0 dire publiquement que je remercie les gens du travail qu'ils accomplissent chaque jour afin de pr\u00e9server les syndicats.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"8585211\" data-originallang=\"en\">Ma grande question \u2014 et je vais peut-\u00eatre l'adresser \u00e0 vous, monsieur Archer \u2014 consiste \u00e0 savoir ce que l'on peut faire pour \u00e9laborer des dispositions l\u00e9gislatives justes \u00e0 la Chambre des communes en tant parlementaires pour mieux soutenir les syndicats et veiller au final \u00e0 adopter de bonnes mesures l\u00e9gislatives, de tous les partis, et \u00e0 continuer de le faire, surtout \u00e0 mesure que l'\u00e9conomie \u00e9volue. Nous constatons une diminution du nombre d'emplois syndiqu\u00e9s dans certains secteurs et un d\u00e9clin des emplois syndiqu\u00e9s. Que pouvons-nous faire pour renforcer les syndicats au Canada?</p>"
    },
    "url": "/committees/human-resources/44-1/124/michael-coteau-1/",
    "politician_url": "/politicians/michael-coteau/",
    "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/4624/",
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "12876484",
    "document_url": "/committees/human-resources/44-1/124/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fcommittees%2Fhuman-resources%2F44-1%2F124%2F"
    }
}