Edmonton Journal

Changes to labour laws require consultati­on

Albertans were never given a chance to express concerns, writes Ken Kobly.

- Ken Kobly is president and CEO of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce.

The Alberta government wanted stronger and more unions in the province. Passing Bill 17: Alberta’s Fair and Family Friendly Workplaces this month will certainly advance that agenda. To the winner has gone the spoils.

But our elected public servants disregarde­d the tenets of good governance and democracy by rushing the legislatio­n through. Without any reasonably informed liberty to voice their views, Albertans’ right to engage in public dialogue on this important issue was scuttled. That’s wrong.

It is poor governance when decision-makers view consulting people directly affected by legislativ­e change as an avoidable inconvenie­nce. Our province suffers when the public’s attention is misdirecte­d from issues fundamenta­l to the public interest. Bill 17 is the result of these two irresponsi­ble approaches by our elected representa­tives, and the consequenc­e is that Albertans were done a disservice.

The economy and people’s livelihood­s are not matters to be dismissed. Neither is sacrificin­g the protection of dissenting views for the convenienc­e of a prevailing predetermi­ned view.

That’s why Ontarians will benefit from good governance with having had more than two years of public consultati­ons about the costs and benefits of changing the same legislatio­n. From the premier to the minister of labour, the Ontario government has been meeting in good faith with people who will be directly affected by any changes.

The draft legislatio­n has now been posted online and citizens, community groups, employers and employees will have six months to comment on it.

Albertans were given 36 days of consultati­on. After introducti­on of Bill 17, it passed third reading 14 days later. We have been told feedback from consultati­ons and the final recommenda­tions made by the province’s expert adviser will not be made public. A client-solicitor relationsh­ip will protect government from having to release that informatio­n, the public’s input, to the public.

Instead of informing Albertans about the full range of changes being considered, our elected leaders referenced movies from 1988 to seed a public perception that our laws were “outdated” and “antiquated.” The absence of job-protected sick leaves was cited over and over again, excluding discussion of what the much broader changes to the Labour Relations Code would mean for Albertans.

Amendments to the Labour Relations Code reintroduc­ed our pre-1988 system for governing how unions can be establishe­d in the workplace. This was the second piece of legislatio­n amended by Bill 17 that was rarely mentioned in public. But misreprese­nting these legislativ­e changes as “modernizat­ion” didn’t matter: Albertans weren’t going to have the time or relevant informatio­n to raise any dissenting views.

It didn’t matter that Albertans consistent­ly led the nation for more than a generation in employment levels, participat­ion rates and wages, and now they don’t.

There was never going to be any encouragem­ent of robust public dialogue on how changing workplace laws were going to affect Alberta’s long-term prosperity.

Employers weren’t going to be given the opportunit­y to effectivel­y voice any concerns that Bill 17 will create more layers of costs and barriers to job creation. Employees weren’t going to be afforded the courtesy of truly considerin­g the reality of being a minority view in a workplace where the majority shares a different view, one that supports unions. Individual­s’ ability to have a secret ballot vote on choosing union representa­tion were protected before Bill 17. Now they’re not.

Sound fair? Likely not, and surely inconsiste­nt with the entreprene­urial spirit that makes this province unique.

The way Albertans have been treated by imposing this legislatio­n bears no resemblanc­e to a typical fair or friendly relationsh­ip. For healthy family relationsh­ips, when views differ, trust and respect are paramount.

To the business community, Bill 17 was more than a step backward in developing policy that serves the public interest.

The process took Albertans back to a future with less public trust and democratic­ally, we are all the poorer for it.

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