13 Apr Fake consultation

I don’t often agree with Leanne Hachey, the engaging but disturbingly right-wing Atlantic VP of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, but she scored a bullseye this week with her critique of the Dexter government’s fake consultation on its much-criticized first-contract legislation. (Disclosure: Hachey and I are longtime friends and sparring partners.)

Documents FOIPOPed by the CFIB demonstrated that the legislation was drafted before the consultation began, although the draft bill was never disclosed during the window-dressing sessions.

The federation and other business groups spent tens of thousands of dollars opposing the bill only to discover what they suspected all along: it was a fait accompli.

“No one wants to take part in a process to find out at the end of it there was really no chance to have influence,” Hachey said.

Indeed not.

Facing a series of difficult contract settlements in which it would have to show toughness, the Dexter government needed a sop for its labour allies, and the first contract legislation — a solution in search of a problem, if ever there was one — was it.

Fair enough. Governments sometimes have to do things for their base. But when they do, they ought not to gussy it up with demeaning, dishonest, fake consultations.