Unions bracing as Liberals to table major economic and labour bill

OTTAWA — Labour unions across Canada are bracing as the Liberal government gets set to table a major review of the Canada Labour Code as part of a major legislation that will further review how project proposals are reviewed and approved.

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The government will table Bill C-38 on Monday afternoon, which it bills as “an Act respecting certain measures to strengthen the economy.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet have teased many consequential changes in the bill including to the Canada Labour Code. The government has previously signalled that it wanted to see changes to labour laws overseeing federally-regulated industries after a series of impactful strikes at airlines and ports.

Speaking to reporters alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Carney described the upcoming bill as “the most consequential economic legislation certainly of this parliamentary session, arguably over the course of the next few years.”

As a sign of how sweeping the bill may be, three ministers (Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon and Labour Minister Patty Hajdu) are scheduled to present the bill after it is tabled in Parliament on Monday afternoon.

But the bill is met with much skepticism from major labour unions, who fear that the government will look to restrict workers’ abilities to strike.

“The government has repeatedly said it will protect the right to strike. We welcome that commitment. Today, we expect to see what it means in practice,” said Canadian Labour Congress head Bea Bruske in a statement.

“But we have also been clear: any new restriction on our right to strike is unacceptable.”

Unions have been vocally opposed to how the Carney Liberals wielded a controversial section of the Canada Labour Code to prematurely end multiple strikes in the transportation sector, including one by Air Canada flight attendants in the summer of 2025.

According to various news reports, the government is expected to entrench into law its ability to end a strike in a federally-regulated industries and send the parties to binding arbitration if deemed necessary by Ottawa.

National Post

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