Bill C-39 Would Put Section 107's Strike-Stopping Power in Writing
The federal government's newly tabled Bill C-39 would give Ottawa a more direct and explicit role in labour disputes in federally regulated sectors, changing how the government may respond to strikes and lockouts. The mechanism is specific: the bill would codify and structure the federal labour minister's authority under Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to direct the Canada Industrial Relations Board to take action to prevent strikes and lockouts, including referring a dispute to binding arbitration. The word 'including' is doing quiet work in that sentence. Binding arbitration is the named example of the action the Board may be directed to take, not necessarily the only one — which is why a provision written as a guardrail can read just as easily as an instruction manual.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
Codify is the word to watch. A Section 107 power wrapped in a formal process becomes easier to treat as routine than as an exception.
Or the bill simply describes the Board's job bluntly: take action to prevent strikes and lockouts, with arbitration as the illustration. That is a broad mandate to hand an industrial relations board, whatever the label on it.