Finance committee  What I said earlier stands. I'm worried about those folks who don't actually have a pension. When we're talking about utilizing fair taxation so that folks can actually save money for their retirement and retire with dignity, we have a lot of work to do. That means we need to be able to have the funds available to help those workers out, and it starts by making sure we have fair taxation in Canada.

Finance committee  I don't support changes to a bill that has yet to be fully delivered in that way. I think that for a one-time event, there are ways to navigate those. We heard about the exemptions. We heard about various different opportunities to lessen the burden, so to speak. A one-time event is going to impact very few average workers across this country.

Finance committee  I am.

Finance committee  The number of members who are in that profitable position is minimal at best, I would argue. The members I hear from and the workers I hear from are certainly not in that kind of a wealthy situation where they have to worry about these situations in terms of the capital gains being increased on their profits.

Finance committee  I don't think that doctors are facing any particular challenges. They have the opportunity to avail themselves of RRSPs, TFSAs, etc. What I'm more concerned about is the average orderly, working in a hospital, being taxed on 100% of his or her salary, while a doctor is not.

Finance committee  Virtually none of those workers would be impacted by this, that we can tell. We know that at least a quarter, almost a third, of Canadian workers do not have a private or a public pension, other than their CPP, that they might be eligible for. I understand, and I empathize with those individuals who have built a business and are using this as a retirement vehicle.

Finance committee  Unless they've inherited some wealth, I don't see any of them falling into that category.

Finance committee  As we heard from some of the other witnesses, we don't anticipate seeing any change in the terms of investments or productivity based on a change to the capital gains exclusions, so I don't see any of this trickling down to the average worker going to work every single day of their life.

Finance committee  Thank you so much, Chair and committee members. My name is Bea Bruske. I'm the president of the Canadian Labour Congress. The CLC represents national and international unions, with more than three million members from coast to coast to coast in virtually every sector and industry in this country.

Human Resources committee  Again, the impact would be more chance of ongoing strikes happening in that 18-month period of time. We want to get to a point where there is more of an impetus for parties to gain a collective agreement struck at the bargaining table. We think 18 months, quite frankly, is far too long.

Human Resources committee  I would absolutely be in agreement that this bill ought to be expanded to include all public service workers. We think that's an oversight and we think all employees should have the protection of this bill.

Human Resources committee  I think this legislation simply modernizes labour relations in Canada, and it's beyond time for us to actually be getting to this particular piece of legislation. This is something we should have had for many decades. We see that with this legislation the sun still rises in Quebec and still rises in B.C., so this is not egregious.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. We see the right to strike as a charter right, and we believe the right to strike really is the right to reach a fair collective agreement. Again, as I noted right off the top, no worker goes to a bargaining table and says, “I want to go on strike because I think it would be nice to have a break from work.”

Human Resources committee  I have a great amount of respect for the Canada Industrial Relations Board, for the chair and for all of the workers there who really work very hard to ensure that workers and employers get fair treatment when it comes to issues of dispute or whatever the issue of the day might be.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. Walking into a workplace when there's been a labour dispute, when you've had to walk a picket line, especially when scabs have been utilized and have literally taken food out of your children's mouths, is not something that workers forget or that they will ever get beyond.