Morgan’s nurses’ bargaining bill passes second reading

Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan’s bill proposing more power for NWT nurses regarding collective bargaining passed second reading on Monday. Seven regular MLAs voted in favour.

That means the bill will now go to a legislative committee for more in-depth study and debate, which could include amendments.

Morgan introduced the bill, seconded by Monfwi MLA Jane Weyallon Armstrong, in the legislature last week. The bill proposes legislation that would allow nurses, who are currently part of a Union of Northern Workers bargaining unit featuring thousands of other GNWT staff, to form their own unit.

“This is important to a large number of nurses … so it needs to be important to all of us if we care about a strong healthcare system,” Morgan said during second reading of the bill in the Legislative Assembly on Monday.

She pointed to a recent survey by nurses’ regulatory body CANNN that suggested widespread support for nurses’ collective bargaining to be separated. (The UNW has questioned the survey’s methodology.)

Morgan added she has heard from nurses in regional centres and small communities who support the bill and believe it could help recruit more nurses to small communities.

The MLA argued current legislation “profoundly interferes with how workers can organize themselves” and does not allow nurses to have a voice at the bargaining table.

She said the bill could give nurses the option to vote among themselves on who they want their bargaining agent to be and the option to have a separate collective agreement.

‘A no-brainer’

The proposed legislation must still pass a third reading before it can become law.

Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart said supporting the principle of the bill “seems to be a no-brainer” given nursing recruitment and retention challenges in the territory.

“When you have front-line workers who are coming to us and saying ‘we need a louder voice,’ you know, I think we’re obliged to listen,” he said.

“The principle of this bill is to give these workers a louder voice.”

Testart said, however, changes to collective bargaining are not “a silver bullet” and the NWT government also needs to invest in solutions such as better compensation and benefits, more contract flexibility and safer working conditions.

“We’ve always said a fundamental component of management in our legislature is using those principles of engagement to make an informed decision, and that means going to the communities. Taking the bill to second reading allows you to do that,” said Danny McNeely, the MLA for the Sahtu.

“Let’s hear from our residents.”

Weyallon Armstrong, Denny Rodgers, Julian Morse and Robert Hawkins also spoke in support of further examining Morgan’s bill.

Morgan had said getting the bill through second reading was an important goal of hers as it allowed public consultation on the bill to begin. Had a majority of MLAs voted against the bill at second reading, it would have been defeated and gone no further.

Right tool at the right time?

Cabinet abstained from voting on the bill.

Shortly after Morgan announced plans to introduce the bill earlier this year, the Union of Northern Workers and its parent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said they were not opposed to Morgan’s proposal in principle but did not support all aspects of her bill and would prefer to work on legislation with cabinet over a longer period.

The NWT government has said it plans to look at the structure of bargaining units from a whole-of-government perspective to ensure the Public Service Act “provides a transparent and modern framework that respects employees’ rights to representation.”

Last week, the union and NWT government issued a joint statement affirming their shared commitment to advancing “thoughtful and effective legislative amendments” to the Public Service Act.

Finance minister Caroline Wawzonek said Morgan’s bill touches on an issue that is “important and deeply felt” throughout the healthcare system and the NWT’s wider public service.

She questioned, however, if the bill is “the right tool at the right time to create positive, efficient and lasting change” for all NWT government workers.

Wawzonek said she aims to begin engagement about the Public Service Act’s section on collective agreements over the summer.

“This private member’s bill was not developed in the same manner, with the same process, with the same level of consultation or the same engagement,” she said.

“It does not address the public service as a whole. It does not address the healthcare profession as a whole.”

The minister highlighted several concerns with the bill, including that it would allow for the formation of a separate bargaining unit without a neutral or independent certification process, as well as questions about financial authority and constitutional compatibility. She argued those issues would be best addressed through a comprehensive government-led bill.

Everyone agrees Public Service Act ‘is a mess’

Only Great Slave MLA Kate Reid, a former president of a UNW local at the GNWT, voted against second reading of the bill.

“I think we can all agree … the Public Service Act is a mess. What we do not agree on is the road to fix it,” she said.

“Nurses have described longstanding internal governance issues. I believe those concerns to be real. They deserve a solution and to be supported as they find that solution for themselves and, crucially, they need to drive that change. They need to organize.”

Reid said she supports “robust changes” to the Public Service Act, especially the creation of an independent labour board that would allow nurses to collectively choose their own union.

Reid raised concerns about potential political interference, arguing that the private member’s bill is “not a free and impartial process driven by employees” and means Morgan is “effectively acting as union representation and labour board by proposing these changes as a legislator, to legislators.”

“Even if a legislator is acting with the absolute best intentions, which I believe the member is, I do not feel comfortable giving a legislator the power I have just outlined,” she said.

Worthy of discussion

Given the final word before MLAs voted on second reading of her bill, Morgan thanked her colleagues for their comments but pushed back against arguments by Reid and Wawzonek.

She said she felt a higher bar was being applied to her bill than other bills. She said that bar meant to even be worthy of discussion, her bill must help all potential stakeholders, have the support of all nurses, and comprehensive public engagement has to have already been conducted.

“We’ve never hesitated to move forward with other committee engagement or processes based on the worry that every single person within a given group or profession wouldn’t have the chance to be witnesses, or present to committee, or have their will be expressed in the deliberations,” she said.

Morgan added the point of her bill is to provide an independent mechanism for nurses to decide on a bargaining agent. She said the NWT Supreme Court would verify whether that vote was free, fair and reflected the will of nurses.

“I propose this because no other option currently exists,” she said.

“A bill doesn’t have to solve all of the problems and solve all the problems for everyone in order to be worthy, and certainly not in order to be worthy of passing second reading.”