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Players Sift Through Ruling's Fallout
Looking for answers one week after the overturn of Bill 29.
One week after Canada’s highest court caught the B.C. government off guard and secured a landmark victory for Canadian unions, the political players in the Bill 29 chess game are continuing to react and strategize their next moves.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled last Friday that three sections of Bill 29 -- the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act -- infringed worker’s rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Since then, provincial organizations from the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union to the Business Council of B.C. as well as politicians, pundits and affected workers have been stuck in political limbo, struggling to asses the impact of the ruling for citizens from caregivers to consumers.
The HEU expects over 8000[*] workers who lost their jobs under the cost cutting bill to be compensated or rehired and is calling for a moratorium on layoffs.
Experts, meanwhile, say the ruling could drain anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion from Finance Minister Carole Taylor’s budget.
But while the unions hailed the decision as a “tremendous victory,” the province has not taken it as a warning to stop “flexibility” measures to combat rising health care costs in the province.
Provincial officials did not say this week whether they would honour the union’s demands, instead choosing vague politico speak to diffuse the situation while they plot their next move.
“We have an obligation to listen to what the Supreme Court has said and to act appropriately with regard to that," Premier Gordon Campbell told the media. He added that the government planned to take the full year granted by the court to address the issue.
Meanwhile, health care workers affected by the deal reacted with cautious optimism to the ruling.
“The judgment was well received, There was a bit of a celebration, but for us, it’s not over. We still have to fight to regain our jobs,” said Chris Martin, the chairperson of the Nanaimo Seniors Village Hospital Employees' Union Local and a care aide at the facility.
Martin and 168 other Nanaimo health care employees suffered the effects of Bill 29 more than once. As the Tyee’s Tom Sandborn reported, they recently learned they would be out of a job in September and forced to re-apply for the same work.
They’ve been fired and rehired three times since the implementation of the bill. Their wages dropped to $16.50[*] from $20.74 an hour during the same period.
“Nothing has changed in Nanaimo. They’re still facing lay-off. The company hasn’t changed their position,” said Mike Old, director of communication for the Hospital Employees' Union. “Everybody is still evaluating what are the consequences,” he added.
While B.C. denizens make wild calculations and speculations about healthcare and the provincial purse, the rest of the provinces are trying to understand the future of labor relations across Canada.
A groundbreaking piece of the judgment overturned several previous rulings stating that the Charter did not recognize the right to collective bargaining. “The protection enshrined in s. 2(d) of the Charter may properly be seen as the culmination of a historical movement towards the recognition of a procedural right to collective bargaining,” it reads.
One legal expert told the Toronto Star that the judgment could even affect a government's ability to legislate striking public sector employees back to work.
Meanwhile, back in B.C., the HEU is calling on the government to sit down with them as soon as possible to determine how to proceed, but the province says it will take several weeks to formulate a response before meeting with the union.
And why not? It has a full year to make its next move while pundits patients and the provinces try to navigate the new game board of labour relations in Canada.
*On June 18, 2007, we corrected the number workers who the HEU expects to be compensated (in this line).
*On June 18, 2007, we corrected the amount HEU worker wages dropped (in this line). ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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tricia58
4 years ago
Stalling
Gordon Campbell seems incapable of learning. The court admonished him for not consulting unions and still now he is refusing to consult the unions. He will consult with anyone but. Time Gordon wakes up and learns to listen instead of just order others around.
Gary
4 years ago
This government appears...
to be using every stall tactic they can to delay anything that would make them look bad for the next election.
Witness the stall tactics used in the BC Rail trial of Basi-Virk-Basi. One cannot lay blame on a special prosecutor in that case when he gets his direction in writing from the Assistant Deputy Arrotney General, who can get direction from the Deputy Attorney General, who in turn can get direction from the Attorney General, according to the Crown Prosecutors Act.
Now they are taking a full year to set the spin doctors in motion to tell us how they were only acting according to the (wrong) laws of the time. They absolutely do not want input from the people who elected them and it will come back to bite them in the ass at the next election.
And the list of revoked acts and legislation mistakes (farm Labour, Health etc) that impacted the working class, they either are stalling on or refuse to adress just keeps getting longer. And speaking of longer the only ones who benefit from these delays are the profiteers.
So you see there is a pattern here abd this government could care less. Whether they get elected again or not doesn't matter. They already stole our money for their pensions.
Mr. Campbell, do the right thing.
southdeltawalker
4 years ago
Secrecy, scandal and deception....
...this is the legacy of the campbell government.
How many more decent hard working people are going to be victimized by this gang in Victoria?
Hello N.D.P. are you awake??
Bucky
4 years ago
Flexibility = BS
Quote: But while the unions hailed the decision as a “tremendous victory,” the province has not taken it as a warning to stop “flexibility” measures to combat rising health care costs in the province.
The Liberals created this issue of rising costs so they could attack the HEU and send a message to all unions that they better do as Gordie says or they'll get stomped on. This ruling makes it hard but not impossible for governments in Canada to void contracts by legislation. Cambells agenda is clear, he doesn't legislate to reduce the numbers of managers in the Health Regions or to reduce the enormus salaries they recieve (including bonuses and severance). He picks on the unionized workers. "Flexibility" is just a smoke screen for union busting!
BC Dude
4 years ago
Great blog Gary Campbell
Great blog Gary
Campbell thinks stalling till he and his TILMA boss's draconian act of terror comes into effect will protect them.
"People Power July 01, 2007" Oh, I forgot Sam's Civil City and how much $$ Geoff Plant, 3 hundred grand Ken Dobell, what a bunch of miscreants under one umbrella?
Write new laws without public input, sounds a bit like fascism to me.
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Narcissistic Personality Disorder(NDP) - Incredibly Ironic that someone in the current government might suffer from a disorder that has the same initials as the opposition. See if you can think of someone who fits the following diagnostic criteria. Please don't reply with naming any names for we don't want to violate any of the Tyee's ethical guidelines.
The following Wikipedia article quotation has been adapted from the DSM-IV_TR, p.717
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder
has a grandiose sense of self-importance
is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by other special people
requires excessive admiration
strong sense of entitlement
takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
lacks empathy
is often envious or believes others are envious of him or her
arrogant affect.
(see also full list in DSM-IV-TR, p. 717)
southdeltawalker
4 years ago
hmm.....Narcissistic Personality Disorder
i wonder who that could be....for some reason i keep thinkin of Andy Warhol's famous soup can painting...
hmmm..it's all too subliminal for me.
BLONDE PITBULL
4 years ago
NDP....
Twisted sisters and misters....
BLONDE PITBULL
4 years ago
Oh, I'm not referring to the
Oh, I'm not referring to the political party tho they have a few, too...
Burgess
4 years ago
Peanuts
WACB said the NDP couldn't run a peanut stand. Well this present bunch of Socred Reruns hiding under the Liberal banner can't seem to run the Province's business in an honest and open fashion.
Adamwest
4 years ago
'The Liberals created this
'The Liberals created this issue of rising costs so they could attack the HEU and send a message to all unions that they better do as Gordie says or they'll get stomped on.' Such nonsense. Sounds like it's coming from the David Suzuki school of political science. By the way, wasn't it the Liberal appointed Supreme Court that ruled it is perfectly legal to create child pornography in the privacy of your own home. Bit of a credibility loss after that one, wouldn't you say?
munroe
4 years ago
Ahhh, Adamwest
I really get a kick out of right-wingers. I've noticed three tendencies on blogs dedicated to your political persusion. All are demonstrated by your posting.
The first is to frame the issue by picking out single thoughts or sentences and lose the general context. The second is to be flippant. The third is to associate an a and b when they have absolutely nothing in common.
Mind you, when I think about it, these are the same approaches taken by Gordo's spin masters - approaches that are bought by the corporate media hook, line and sinker as they say.
Perhaps instead, you can help us by identifying exactly what approach would be reasonable in addressing the remedy to the impugned actions?
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
Now that AdamWest has
Now that AdamWest has attempted to belittle David Susuki:
Such nonsense. Sounds like it's coming from the David Suzuki school of political science.
perhaps he would like to move on to denegrating the memories of Martin Luther King Junior, Ghandi, and Mother Teresa. Even the Vancouver Sun accepts that David Suzuki is rightfully recognized as a excellent resource on matters of the environment.
AdamWest, I am still waiting for you to back up your assertion on the earlier related thread. You have offered no date nor place for spreading what seems only to be a rumour about the NDP budget before the Liberals came to power. Are you one of the media monitors? Don't just make slanderous assertions or repeat hearsay; back up what you say (especially negative things) with verifiable facts! Your opinion is meaningless unless you have facts to support what you say; and, your facts need to be more than half-truths, because half-truths are another form of lying.
jsinger
4 years ago
The label 'Liberal' appears
The label 'Liberal' appears to be used to whatever advantage the right wingers are aiming to get at any given moment. They have no qualms about calling themselves Liberals if it assists them in their one and only interest, power and control (as in the Gordon Campbell "Liberals"), but when they're talking ideologically, (in america-speak of course), 'liberal' becomes an insult. Fortunately anyone with a brain realizes that a rose by any other name smells as sweet and a turd by any other name smells as shitty.
Adamwest
4 years ago
'perhaps he would like to
'perhaps he would like to move on to denegrating the memories of Martin Luther King Junior, Ghandi, and Mother Teresa.' Oh my God that's rich! David Suzuki and the above three. Unbelievable Sharing. But you forgot Rosa Parkes and Jinny Sims. As for your comments on truths and half-truths, I simply quoted a blatant and ridiculous fiction from bucky because it seems to be the way the anti-everythings on this thread operate.
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
Suzuki has endorsed NDP
Though not related to this thread, except that David Suzuki endorsed the party that would have paid the HEU workers their due. From the wikipedia:
In 2004, David Suzuki was nominated as one of the top 10 "Greatest Canadians" by viewers of the CBC. In the final vote he finished fifth and therefore ranked as the greatest living Canadian. Suzuki said his own vote was for Tommy Douglas who was the eventual winner (aside from 1996 when he supported the Green Party, Suzuki has consistently endorsed the NDP, the party founded by Douglas, in provincial and federal elections).
In 2006, David Suzuki was the recipient of the Bradford Washburn Award presented at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Suzuki
Adamwest
4 years ago
This just keeps getting
This just keeps getting better Sharing. The CBC and UNESCO? Endorsed the NDP? Whoop-de-do! In 1984 I heard him say that there would be no trees left in B.C. by 2004. He's a joke.
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
yes, it keeps getting better
UNESCO is an organisation that would have expected that the Liberal government to honour valid HEU (and others) contracts and the International Agreements made signed to by Canada. From the Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO
Gary
4 years ago
Adamwest where is ....
your head? Do you live in the concrete jungle they call Vancouver? Do you have windows in your home. Can you see the trees? If you can, could you please give me a good estimate (percentage will do) as to how much forest you can see? You see where I live there is less than 50% (conservativly) left. Pretty good prediction for Suzuki in 1986 when big business thought he was wacko. Of course the profeteers are the problem. They didn't think there was any global warming in 1986. And they still don't think they are the problem today. The pine beetle is not going to go away. Why, you ask? Because we are not going to get anymore winters here in the interior where the temperature will go to -25c for a sustained period to freeze out the scourge.
So while you are taking your little blurbs from here and there to suit your own spin,please remember that David Suziki is a man so far ahead of his time that he makes the rest of us (most inclusively the LINOS)look like figures in a wax museum.
dorothy
4 years ago
getting down and soil-tuned
"David Suziki is a man so far ahead of his time that he makes the rest of us (most inclusively the LINOS)look like figures in a wax museum."
Pleeease - where is that standards police whe we need them. Name-calling in the style of 'my big brother can slug it out with your big brother and win', plus a good dose of sycophantic crap. This is about bill 29 and its hopeful demise, not about saints and sinners. And, can't we keep Suzuki out of ANYthing? You're not doing the man and his message a favour by trivializing him to this extent...
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
On topic for Dorothy
Well, Dorothy, it seems pretty obvious. The judge has given Gordon Campbell a year to repair some of the damage he has caused through his obvious contempt he has shown: for working British Columbians, for the sanctity of a written contract, towards his need to keep his election promises.
I believe if he fails to fix his mistakes regarding Bill 29, he will be in contempt of the Supreme Court of Canada. Perhaps the judges on the high court would consider bunking him at one of Canada's fine federal prisons if he does not follow through as directed.
Gary
4 years ago
and Dorothy...
...the government is already on record stating they will take the whole year to attempt to fix their bad legislation. They sure as hell didn't take a whole year to pass the bloody thing. So why should it take that long to fix it?
DPL
4 years ago
Hey Gary, he is taking a
Hey Gary, he is taking a year because he is trying to figure out another way to shaft the working people. I'm pretty sure while still in opposition he had a few little right wingers writing the act. It was easy Lie like hell to the HEU prior to election, then cut them off at the knees. I ofeten wonder who came up with the idea of structural deficit? They inherited two balanced budgets in a row and the last one was pretty substantial. It was plain and simple, get even time
alive
4 years ago
Where the money went!
Yep,it was "get even time" when Gordo slashed everything.
To top it off he then gave all his buddies a 25% taxrelief!
I don't know how many times it needs repeating, but nobody had promised such taxcuts, and nobody had expected them!
That was plain and simple decicing that his victory was so strong that he could do anything!
Yep that NDP syndrome certainly applies to this bunch!
Now, if the real NDP (party) could get some press coverage, that would change things.
SharingIsGood
4 years ago
title of the article "Players..."
I believe that it is somewhat unfortunate the the HEU workers might be considered by some to be "players" - as if this is a game and the senseless turmoil that the Campbell Liberals have caused in their lives is anything but game-like to them. Perhaps Campbell and his crew think that they are merely players in a game - a game where they deserve big money and huge pensions for messing with people's lives.
Except for the title, many thanks to Francis Plourde and Sunny Freeman for keeping this topic alive.
BC Dude
4 years ago
Bill 29 and another 1000
Bill 29 and another 1000 worse if TILMA, or ATLANTICA becomes a reality at least back East they are fighting back against this bull.
A blurb about TILMA "The People's Death Nell"Province Fri Page A41
Now that should be HUGELY Available on all media Front page Headlines and on all TV News! Nothing, hear the Silence?
Bill Moyers on PBS originally about the USA!
I've just Canadianized it a bit!
This is total Big money and big business, corporations and commerce, are again the undisputed overlords of politics and government. The Parliament, the Politicians and, increasingly, the judiciary, reflect their interests. We appear to have a government run by remote control from the Corporations, The Fraser Institutes, etc.
To hell with everyone else:
Stump
4 years ago
$$$$$
I'm just stoked that so many lawyers have had a chance to make lots of dough arguing over whether a contract is worth the paper it's written on. I can think of no better use of my tax dollars.
Anybody have a ballpark figure on how much a day in Supreme Court costs us poor schmucks that actually foot the bill?
BC Dude
4 years ago
Oh! Have to feed the bottom
Oh! Have to feed the bottom feeders, Attorneys!
Look at the Air India cover-up, the BC Rail cover-up scandal, the Pickton trial 20 years in all to finally come to court, Why?
How much in legal fees have just these three cases cost US, the taxpayer and how much more?
G West
4 years ago
Percy: If you're still out there
Please go to paras 153 - 160 of the SCC decision on Bill 29.
The Court lays down some very specific ideas about how the Campbell Government can fix things...and in a lot less time than the 12 months the 'Premier' is apparently convinced he should take.
Para 156 is particularly insightful. I'll quote it here:
156 An examination of the record as to alternatives considered by the government reinforces the conclusion that the impairment in this case did not fall within the range of reasonable alternatives available to the government in achieving its pressing and substantial objective of improving health care delivery. The record discloses no consideration by the government of whether it could reach its goal by less intrusive measures, and virtually no consultation with unions on the matter.
Court decisions usually aren't that dryly understated and, frankly, funny.
Given the current outcomes - both in terms of cost and quality of health care delivery in the province - the reality is almost funny enough for tears.