Town officials here plan to request a delegation with Ontario’s labour minister to present concerns about the impact on municipalities of planned changes to labour and employment standards legislation.
“There’s very significant changes coming there,” CAO Bill White told Minto council on June 20.
White noted Wellington County’s human resources department has already produced a report on the pending legislation.
“The idea was to protect vulnerable workers, but I think the county and pretty much everyone is seeing a lot more expense for what are not traditionally seen as vulnerable employees. I think our workers here are treated very well,” he said.
White suggested Minto make a presentation on the new labour regulations, which include changes to minimum wage, vacation entitlements and scheduling, at the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference, which runs from Aug. 13 to 16.
“This bill, if you peel it back, it’s going to cause us a lot of costs,” said Mayor George Bridge.
“We’re talking things like giving four days’ notice on having snowplow operators know whether they’re coming in or not; part-time snowplow operators,” he added.
“I don’t know who made this up,” Bridge continued.
“I don’t know how anybody could make this up – 148 pages of this bill and AMO never got a chance to look at it …
“Normally they get a chance to look at it and give solutions and say this is going to be a problem. For some reason the government didn’t want that.”
He said he felt requesting a delegation on the labour issues is a good idea as, “I think there should be some pressure on that.
“It’s scary. It’s scarier than I ever thought.”
White noted the legislative changes are also “linked in” with a planned increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2019.
“You put those two together for small business and it’s a death knell, a death knell,” Bridge stated.
The county report, presented at the June 20 administration, finance and human resources committee meeting, notes the government “wasted little time” responding to a final report on a review of Ontario’s changing workplaces.
On June 1 the province introduced Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, which will implement significant reforms to both the Employment Standards Act, 2000 and the Labour Relations Act, 1995.
The bill has passed first reading and has been referred to the province’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs.
“The proposed changes outlined in Bill 148 are broad-reaching and have significant impact for municipal employers, not only for employment terms and conditions, but also in terms of a large increase in the cost of employment and the resulting fiscal financial impact,” states a report from Susan Farrelly, Wellington County’s acting director of human resources.
“We are starting the process of reviewing the proposed legislation changes in detail alongside our current policies and practices to ensure that we are aligned and prepared for the impending legislative changes.
“There are several items in Bill 148 that are vague in terms of application and handling, and we anticipate that more clarity will be provided over the coming months.”
Council agreed to request a delegation on the labour reforms, as well as one on allowing municipalities to “stack” grants from various ministries into one infrastructure project.
Bridge explained that without predictable grant sources from upper levels of government, municipalities are going to have a hard time coming up with their share of joint infrastructure projects in the future – a concern the ability to “stack” grants would help alleviate.
