Making hard work of labour changes

Murray Mandryk, The Leader-PostPublished: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Were it limited to the issue of changing the labour rules to achieve "fairness" and "balance", the Saskatchewan Party government would be winning this fight hands down.

But if change was needed, why didn't the Saskatchewan Party government simply advocate change on that principle? Why would it need to be anything less than upfront and honest about what it was doing?

Unfortunately, Norris's newfound forthrightness has come only after his latest misadventure emerging out of his appearance at the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) convention Friday. (This, too, is a tad unfortunate, given that going before the angry union mob demonstrated the kind of courage of conviction the Saskatchewan Party government needed to demonstrate on these issues from Day One.)

Asked by a local CUPE executive if he or anyone in his government consulted with University of Saskatchewan President Peter MacKinnon prior to the tabling of essential services bill on Dec. 19, Norris said no such consultations happened. The union executive then produced a Dec. 14 e-mail that quotes government media relations director Bonny Braden pleading with the minister's own communications director, Herman Hulshof, to "be in the loop, too" on the essential services legislation. Braden volunteers that she had just spoken "with President MacKinnon and he'll support us on this publicly so that's cool."

While it may not all that nefarious for the government's communications director to be lining up a high-profile supporter, it isn't necessarily consistent with the answer Norris had been giving. (Nor was it necessarily complete harmless, either. MacKinnon is Norris's old boss and was in the middle of a labour dispute.)

Moreover, the e-mail was part of a chain that showed the legislation was well into the draft stage. In fact, included in this e-mail chain was MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman (MLT) partner Kevin Wilson -- a labour management lawyer who has long advocated labour legislation changes.

For the first time Monday, Norris confirmed that Wilson has been retained (at $325 an hour) by his government -- presumably to help with these labour bills. Shouldn't we have known this earlier? And wouldn't it also be have been nice to know that new LRB chair Ken Love was appointed by the transition team -- and had giving legal advice to that transition team?
Even Premier Brad Wall -- who offered his unqualified support to Norris in the assembly Monday -- made a cryptic comment to reporters later that the labour file has not been communicated well.

Read More HERE

Read More HERE From Mario and Wood. "Gov't under fire for e-mail"

Sask. Party slammed for 'biased' legal help