A labour expert says a recommendation in the MacKinnon report to legislate wages for public sector workers would likely violate the Charter of Rights if it were adopted by the Alberta government.
Bob Barnetson, a labour relations professor at Athabasca University, said the matter would likely end up in court. Collective bargaining needs to be meaningful, and it can’t be meaningful if the wage question is predetermined, he said.
“The panel seems to have cottoned on to the fact that there might be some charter difficulties with that recommendation,” he told CBC News on Wednesday.
“So they’ve also suggested that perhaps the government would look at using the notwithstanding clause, which would allow it to enact unconstitutional legislation and preclude the courts from reviewing it now.”
The six-person panel, led by former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon, was asked in May by Premier Jason Kenney to look at ways to get Alberta’s spending under control. The report was delivered to the United Conservative Party government in mid-August and released to the public on Tuesday.
To balance the budget by 2022-23, the panel said, the government must cut operating spending by “at least” $600 million a year. Salaries make up 55 per cent of operating costs, so the panel recommended Alberta legislate a wage framework for teachers, nurses and other public sector workers but still bargain on other issues.
The report referenced the use of the notwithstanding clause to get around constitutional challenges to the legislation. The clause was used by former Saskatchewan premier Grant Devine in 1986 to force government employees back to work.
Finance Minister Travis Toews said no decisions have been made about how the government plans to broach the salary issue. He deflected a question about whether Alberta would resort to using the notwithstanding clause of the charter to avoid a constitutional challenge.
“Our first desire will always be to negotiate and come out with mutually agreeable outcomes with the public sector,” he said following a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.
Workers at a barbecue sponsored by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees in Edmonton said they were not happy with the MacKinnon report.
Nancy Burton, a licensed practical nurse who works at Foothills hospital in Calgary, said you can’t have a collective bargaining process without discussing salaries and benefits.
“The government is overstepping and interfering in that process,” she said.
Kathy Bandmann, a health-care aide from Lethbridge, said she wasn’t surprised to see the report focus so much on public sector salaries.
“They always go after the public sector workers first,” she said. “We’re the front line, they just take away from us. Don’t take away from all the big corporations.”
AUPE president Guy Smith said the union, which represents 95,000 members, will wait to see what the government proposes. He said the issue could end up in court but legal action could only go so far.
“The best way for us to resolve that is by showing the strength and solidarity of our membership across the province,” he said.