Prime Minister Mark Carney's government introduced a sweeping economic bill on Monday that also refits Section 107 of the Canadian Labour Code. That provision lets the labor minister instruct a quasi-judicial body to resolve disputes, a route governments have taken to avoid tabling back-to-work legislation.
Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu says the amendments tighten when the power can be used, framing it as a last resort. She said the minister would need to demonstrate that calling off the strike serves the national interest and, prior to that point, take additional actions such as appointing a special mediator. "That's a high bar to pass," she said Monday. If a mediator cannot break an impasse, Hajdu added, the minister would still need to explain why resorting to Section 107 meets the national interest.
The Canadian Labour Congress and several unions say the opposite - that the wording would make it easier for a minister to wade into bargaining, even as the provision is already being challenged in court. Congress President Bea Bruske called it a direct hit on workers' rights, saying Tuesday, "Make no mistake, this is an attack on the workers' rights to be able to meaningfully get to the bargaining table and to leverage the only power that they have, which is to withdraw their labor."
Bruske said the changes, which still need to pass Parliament, will be met with resistance and that her organization is considering all options, including a legal fight. Labor lawyer Mark Rowlinson, speaking at the labor congress's news conference, said the proposal leaves the national-interest call in the minister's hands. He called the approach unprecedented in Canada and across the Group of Seven, adding, "It has essentially short-circuited the ability of the Canadian courts to rule on what Section 107 actually says and is intended to be used, and now they've essentially put into the statute their own interpretation and given themselves the power."
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Teamsters Canada said the plan "does not provide any meaningful guardrails around the use of Section 107." Unifor - representing 70,000 workers in federally regulated sectors - warned the bill "risks entrenching pre-emptive government intervention and creating a system where workers' rights can be stripped away based simply on where they work."
In the past two years, the government has turned to Section 107 on five occasions to mitigate economic fallout from labor disputes involving Canada's postal operator, WestJet Airlines Ltd., Canadian National Railway Co., Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., and port operations in British Columbia and Montreal. Last year, within less than 12 hours of 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants launching a strike that could have halted 700 flights per day, Hajdu intervened. The union refused to follow the order, calling it unconstitutional, and the stoppage ended soon after when the parties reached a deal.
Unions are currently contesting the government's reliance on Section 107 before the Canada Industrial Relations Board and in Federal Court. However this bill shakes out in Parliament, the stakes are straightforward for regular people: it concerns how and when Ottawa can step into labor showdowns that touch services you actually use, from mail to travel, and how those standoffs get resolved.
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