“Bank of Canada security officers have been on strike for 134 days. The labour board found the bank broke the law twice by using replacement workers, but it keeps doing it. The workers just want to keep their current contract wording, and the bank refuses to arbitrate. The government must make the bank bargain fairly. The government must also stop pushing a bill that harms workers' right to strike.”

“Mr. Speaker, I want to talk today about workers who are working at a federal institution and have been on strike for 134 days. It is a federal institution that has twice been found breaking the law and the government refuses to take action despite the rhetoric that it is here for workers. Today marks 134 days since PSAC security officers in Ottawa have been on strike. These are frontline security officers. They are first responders. They protect Canada’s central bank, its assets and the people who work there. They deserve respect from the managers and executives whose safety it is their job to protect. Twice, the Canada Industrial Relations Board found that the Bank of Canada had broken federal labour law by using scab workers against these striking employees, and the Bank of Canada continues to use scabs even after being ordered to stop. I want to be very clear about this issue. The employees on strike are asking for one simple thing. They are asking to keep the wording in their collective agreement that they already have. The bank is demanding concessions on scheduling rights. That is it. If the Bank of Canada stepped back from that, the strike would be over. The PSAC workers have offered to go to arbitration, and the bank has refused. At a moment in time when workers’ rights across this country are under attack because of the tariff war, because of Bill C-39 and because of so many things the government is doing, the fact that the Bank of Canada is not negotiating in good faith with PSAC workers, who have been on strike for 134 days, is unconscionable. I want to bring this back to something that we have also heard from the minister. When I asked this question in September, the parliamentary secretary said, “Mr. Speaker, let me be crystal clear. We will always protect the rights of workers, and we will always support workers’ constitutional right to strike.” That was in September, but what we have seen is a pattern from the government of undermining collective bargaining, taking away workers’ right to strike and weakening the ability of workers to stand up for their own actual human right to withhold their labour. The Canada Labour Congress president, Bea Bruske, warned Parliament at committee on October 20 that employers who expect government intervention have less incentive to bargain seriously. The Unifor president, Lana Payne, told the parliamentary committee on October 26 that the national interest test in Bill C-39 is so broad that virtually every single strike could qualify, because every strike has an economic impact. I am looking at one side, and I see PSAC workers who are not being treated fairly by the Bank of Canada, which has been found guilty twice of using scab labour. Then we have a government that says it will continue to fight for the right to strike for all workers but brings forward legislation such as Bill C-39, and the government has been told by Unifor, CUPE, CLC, USW and so many labour leaders that it breaks the right to strike. This is a problem.”

“The government says it supports workers, but it does not. It voted against worker protections and ignored union leaders who said this bill takes away the right to strike. This government helps employers, not workers.”

“Mr. Speaker, this is exactly why workers across the country are so frustrated with the Liberal government. The Liberals constantly say that they are on the side of workers, but when it came to taking away section 107 from the Canada Labour Code, they voted against taking it out. When it came to listening to labour leaders like Bea Bruske, Lana Payne and Marty Warren, who said not to bring forward Bill C-39 because it takes away workers’ right to strike, they did not listen. The legislation the government brings forward helps employers. It does not help workers. This is not a government that is here for workers.”