A new private member’s bill by the federal NDP would restore bargaining rights the Liberals have been all too willing to trample, BCFED President Sussanne Skidmore said today.
Introduced on Monday, Bill C-247 would amend the Canada Labour Code by removing section 107, which allows the Minister of Labour to short-circuit collective bargaining by referring labour disputes to the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The provision, until recently a rare emergency fallback, has become routine in the past two years. Since 2024, the federal Liberal government has used section 107 eight times.
“Mark Carney’s Liberal government has been downright trigger-happy with section 107,” she said. “For a government that wrapped itself in the Charter during the federal election, they’re awfully quick to strip workers of their Charter-protected bargaining rights.”
“Section 107 has to go. When employers know they can count on Ottawa to swoop in and take over, they don’t negotiate in good faith,” said BCFED Secretary-Treasurer Hermender Singh Kailley. “They drag their feet at the bargaining table, running out the clock until the feds step in.”
Skidmore said unions appreciate the federal NDP for bringing in the bill, adding that it shows clearly why it’s important to elect representatives who will speak up for working people.
“Thankfully, there are still people in Parliament who understand that a labour dispute should end only when workers get a fair deal — not when a strike becomes politically inconvenient for the government,” she said.