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Your help is needed now on Bill C-377

red tape monster-Canadian Labour CongressStephen Harper's Conservatives are determined to ram through Bill C-377, a private members' bill that will force every union, every union local, every local labour council, every federation of labour and the Canadian Labour Congress 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!

The Canadian Bar Association says Bill C-377 should be withdrawn because it would invade the personal privacy of individual Canadians and is likely unconstitutional.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 Stephen Harper's government wants to spend millions of your taxpayer dollars to set up a new bureaucracy to administer this bill. In the United States, 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.   

The following message will be sent to your MP and a copy to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

The following message will be sent with your signature and personal message below:

I am writing to express my concern with a private members' bill from MP Russ Hiebert - Bill C-377.

When Mr. Hiebert introduced the Bill in 2011, he said the cost to the government would be negligible. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) now estimates it would cost taxpayers a minimum of $21 million to develop and implement, and almost $4 million a year to administer, but they assume on less than 1,000 reports. Yet there are 25,000 union locals in Canada that would be required to report under this bill.

In the United States, 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. Russ Hiebert wants to track the spending of 25,000 union locals in Canada so do the math. It will cost the government anywhere from $32 million to $45 million a year just to operate.


The government is going to be spending millions of dollars to make the financial transactions of unions public. This is legislation that the Canadian Bar Association says is unconstitutional, and the Privacy Commissioner says is an invasion of not only the personal privacy of Canadians, but also the commercial privacy of companies that do business with unions. 

The government is shutting down coast guard stations that keep our waterways safe. It is shutting down search and rescue call centres and putting lives at risk. It is laying off food inspectors. Why, when the government is making deep cuts to the services Canadians need, would anyone vote in favour of this Bill?

I urge you, as my Member of Parliament, to vote against Bill C-377. This is one boondoggle that shouldn't see the light of day.

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