Finance committee  The first thing would be the idea of starting bargaining a year before the expiry. I'm not sure why that's being done. I don't necessarily regard that as an improvement. My guess would be that not a lot of serious bargaining would take place in the first six months of that. Bargaining tends to heat up as you get closer to the expiry date.

Finance committee  I absolutely agree with that. If you look at the grievance process, the more restrictions, the more avenues or choices of forums that you provide to individuals, the worse the process is. You wind up with a lot of grievances, and there could be a question as to whether it should go one route or another, whether it's a discrimination or a selection grievance or a grievance under the collective agreement.

Finance committee  Absolutely. One of the things the parties can do with an arbitration decision is they can learn from the way arbitrators have interpreted the legislation, the way they've applied their thought processes to issues, whether it be total compensation or some other issue. I actually can't imagine an interest arbitration process without full reasons being provided.

Finance committee  The point I would make on that is that the existing process is a very imperfect process, and these changes on the grievance arbitration process, in particular, I see as quite positive. I don't see any discrepancy between what's being proposed for the public sector here and the private sector.

Finance committee  Yes, I can. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to begin by thanking the committee for the invitation to participate in these consultations. I am an individual who has worked for over 30 years in the labour relations field in the private sector and the public sector. For 20 of those years, I was the chief negotiator for the Government of Manitoba, for both the government as an employer and for a number of crown corporations and government agencies, so I have considerable experience with interest arbitration.

Finance committee  Yes, I can, thank you.