The Conservative government is determined to ram through Bill C-377, a private member’s bill that will force every union to file intrusive financial reports that will be posted on a public website for every employer to see. We need your help now to stop this bill in its tracks!

Please click here  to send the message to your Member of Parliament that this bill is an unnecessary waste of taxpayers’ money and spread the word to your family and friends.

The Canadian Bar Association says Bill C-377 should be withdrawn because it would invade the personal privacy of individual Canadians and is likely unconstitutional. Canada’s federal Privacy Commissioner also said that the bill would invade personal privacy and overreaches in its intent.

Yet the government wants to spend millions of our taxpayer dollars to set up a new bureaucracy to administer this bill. In the U.S., a department that administers similar but less onerous reporting for unions had a budget of $41.3 million in 2012 – to track the financial reporting of 26,000 union locals. Stephen Harper’s government wants to track the spending of 25,000 union locals in Canada and we estimate it will cost the government anywhere from $32 million to $45 million a year just to operate – this at a time when the Conservatives are shutting down coast guards stations, search and rescue call centres, and eliminating food inspectors.

Unions are already accountable to their members. Any member coming to a local union meeting gets a detailed financial report from their elected executive on expenditures and an opportunity to ask questions.

Thank you for your help!

 

Carmel Smyth                   Martin O’Hanlon
CMG President                  Director, CWA Canada