Family-Supporting
Jobs For All
For far too long, working families across Mission—Matsqui have been denied the wages, benefits, and dignity we've earned by elites that squeeze us for every dollar they can: over the last forty years, the cost of living has increased four times faster than wages. Over that same period, Canada lost nearly a quarter of its total union membership, including nearly half of its private-sector union membership, robbing working Canadians of the bargaining power we once had and handing it to the elites.
Government after government looked the other way, as the elites ripped the security and stability of working Canadians right out from under us and hollowed out Canada's middle class. But it doesn’t have to be this way: through card-check, sectoral bargaining, and worker ownership, we can rebuild the labour movement, restore the middle class, and take back the power, so we can demand the wages, benefits, and dignity we've earned, so you can afford to put food on the table, keep a roof over your head, and take back control of your own life.
“What most of the world fails to understand is that the trade union movement does not consist purely of collective bargaining and labour relations. You fight for justice at every front.”
—Stephen Lewis, 2017
Repeal Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code
The federal government has repeatedly used Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to legislate striking workers back to work, stripping them of their most fundamental right, at the whim of the elites. Over the last eighty years, the federal government has passed back-to-work legislation more than 30 times, eleven of which have been invoked under Section 107 of the labour code since its addition in 1984. When workers are legislated back, they are forced to accept whatever terms the elites set. New Democrats will repeal Section 107, restoring every working Canadian's constitutional right to strike, and ending Ottawa's practice of intervening on behalf of the elites against the workers they exploit. No politician should have the power to strip workers of the right to withhold their labour.
Protect Card-
Check For All
If a simple majority of workers sign a union card, that should be enough to certify a union. Card-check certification removes the lengthy, employer-influenced certification votes that give bosses time to intimidate and pressure workers out of organizing: a study from the University of Waterloo that looked at over 6,500 union certifications in B.C. from 1978-98 found that the success rates of union drives declined by nearly 20 per cent when card-check was replaced by secret ballot, and found that management opposition was twice as effective. That’s why New Democrats are fighting to protect card-check at the federal level: across Canada today, more than 10 million workers in provincially regulated sectors live in provinces without single-step union certification. While we won card-check across B.C. in 2022, and in Manitoba in 2023, it’s been taken away before, and it can be taken away again; that’s why we must fight to make it the national standard: so all working Canadians can once again have our voices heard, and demand the wages, decency and dignity that we’ve earned, that we deserve.
A Gig Workers' Bill of Rights
Corporate elites have spent decades hiding behind legal fictions to strip working people of the protections we're owed. The largest tech and logistics companies in the world classify their workers as "independent contractors," allowing them to escape minimum wage laws, employment insurance, workers' compensation, and the right to organize, siphoning and draining our wealth off the backs of working Canadians. According to Statistics Canada, in 2025, 667,000 Canadians did paid work through digital platforms, a 44 per cent increase in just two years. And according to Statistics Canada, half of those who rely on gig work as their only source of income have no insurance whatsoever, no accident coverage, no disability coverage, and no employment insurance. These are working Canadians who are having their protections stripped away by tech corporations squeezing them for every dollar they can. New Democrats will end the misclassification of platform and gig workers: any worker who performs work that is integral to a company's business, under its direction, on its schedule, and using its platform, is an employee. New Democrats are fighting for gig workers to receive minimum wage, overtime, employment insurance, paid sick leave, and the right to join a union and bargain collectively. We’ll fight for a federal right to portable benefits for gig workers, so that employment insurance and pension contributions follow the worker, not the employer.
Wages And Pensions Before The Banks
From 1982 to 2022, more than 250,000 Canadian seniors had their pensions slashed when their previous employer declared bankruptcy or insolvency with an underfunded plan. In 2023, sustained pressure finally won unfunded pension liabilities a priority claim in bankruptcy proceedings. However, existing pension plans don't have to comply until April 2027. And wages beyond the first $2,000 owed, along with severance pay, still carry no protection at all. If you spent your working life earning a paycheque and a pension, the bank shouldn't get paid before you do. That's why New Democrats are demanding priority for unpaid wages, severance, and all pension funds over other creditors.
Employment Insurance That Works
Employment Insurance is supposed to be there when you need it most, but today, only one in three unemployed Canadians can actually access the EI they've been paying into. You're deemed ineligible because of your immigration status, because you didn't work enough hours, or because the rules were written for a full-time permanent workforce that no longer describes how most people actually work. For part-time workers, gig workers, seasonal agricultural workers, and the self-employed, workers who are disproportionately young, disproportionately women, and disproportionately found in the farms, food processing facilities, and service jobs of the Fraser Valley, EI is a system they pay into but can rarely access. According to data from Statistics Canada, from the mid-1970s, more than 75 per cent of unemployed Canadians were on EI. Beginning in the 90s, the federal government stopped contributing, making employees and employers the sole contributors, while the tightening of eligibility rules caused the percentage of people on EI to steadily decline. By 2007, the program had amassed a $54 billion surplus, which was folded into general government revenues, and by 2010, the previous EI account had been closed and placed in the government's Consolidated Revenue Fund. The surplus you paid for, to ensure the fund would be there when you needed it, was instead used to fuel massive tax cuts for corporations and the elites: from when EI was first created in 1940, the federal government's top marginal tax rate remained at 47 per cent, while the corporate tax rate remained at 36 per cent. Beginning in the 1970s, these rates were successively cut down to just 33 per cent and 15 per cent today, respectively, while the capital gains inclusion rate was cut from its peak of 75 per cent in 2000 down to 50 per cent today. So while you pay your fair share on all of your income, corporations are charged an abysmal rate on just their profits, and the wealthy are charged only on a fraction of the wealth they amass from the inflation of their assets, all while the services you rely on like EI are gutted. New Democrats are fighting to fix that, starting with a uniform entrance threshold of 360 hours to access EI for all workers regardless of location, immediately extending coverage to hundreds of thousands of Canadians currently locked out of the system they've been paying into. New Democrats are also pushing to increase EI benefits to 75 per cent of previous earnings with a minimum benefit of $600 per week, so that losing a job doesn't mean losing your ability to pay rent or put food on the table. New Democrats are demanding the elimination of the 50-week limit on combined parental and regular benefits, a limit that disproportionately harms women facing layoffs before or after parental leave, and the extension of the reference and benefit period to 104 weeks, giving you more time to qualify and more time to claim the benefits you've paid for. Finally, New Democrats are calling for the restoration of the EI Board of Appeals with worker representatives, so that if your claim is wrongly denied, you have a real and accessible way to fight back. If you pay into EI, you deserve to be able to use it.
A First Contract,
On Time
Winning a union drive should mean a voice in your workplace, a say over your wages and your working conditions. However, far too often, employers deny workers their right to engage in collective bargaining by stalling, in hopes that working people who’ve gone out on the line, who may be sacrificing lost wages to strike, will be forced to take a bad deal. That's why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are demanding automatic first-contract arbitration: requiring employers to begin bargaining within 60 days of a union's certification or a strike authorization, and mandating binding arbitration if they refuse. No longer should working people be denied their right to collective bargaining by employers who would hold out on sitting down to bargain.
“Political liberties without the trade union movement would have left industrial man as a mere chattel..”
—Ed Broadbent, 1969
Worker Representation in Corporate Boardrooms
Corporations answer to shareholders, accountable only to the endless pursuit of profit, far too often at the expense of workers’ wages, conditions and security. Even when workers are represented by a union, they have little say or bargaining power over automation or offshoring, and with fewer than a third of Canadian workers unionized, most working people have no say at all in the decisions that decide whether they keep their job, their wages, or their benefits. That's why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are calling for codetermination: requiring every corporation with 100 or more employees to put workers in 30 per cent of the seats on their board of directors, and every corporation with 500 or more employees to put workers in half of them, along with half the seats on every health and benefit trust.
Own The Company
You Built
Corporate power has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, leading to a growing inequality between workers and owners. It is you who creates the value, your labour that keeps the company running, yet far too often, your labour is seen as nothing more than another input in production, while the shareholders reap its rewards. That's why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are fighting for mandatory employee share-ownership plans at every company with more than 100 employees, requiring workers to collectively own at least 25 per cent of company shares, with that share growing over time and three years for corporations to put the plan in place.
Sectoral Bargaining for Every Canadian
Across Canada today, more than 15 million workers have no union and no collective voice. That means no guaranteed floor of wages, no protection from arbitrary dismissal, no say in the conditions they work under, while unions are forced to bargain collectively, firm by firm, worksite by worksite. That means precarious contracts, unpredictable hours, and no security or stability. Sectoral bargaining changes that, extending collective bargaining agreements across entire industries; every worker in a sector benefits from the same floor of wages, benefits, and protections, whether they're union members or not. According to data from Statistics Canada, workers covered by collective bargaining agreements in Canada make, on average, $7 an hour more than those not covered. That’s 28 per cent more, or an extra $14,000 per year. If we want to restore Canada’s middle class, and the security and stability that came with it, we have to rebuild the labour movement, and that begins by making sure every worker has the chance to be covered by a collective bargaining agreement. That’s why New Democrats are fighting for a National Sectoral Bargaining Framework, so that unions in industries with 10 per cent or greater union density can request the Minister of Labour extend their collective agreement across the entire sector, finally allowing unions to bargain on the scale that corporations operate on. This is how we uplift precarious workers, disproportionately young folks, in federally regulated industries, and begin the long fight of winning sectoral bargaining in every province.
“When we as a party speak of ownership, we must also
speak of worker control.”
—Rosemary Brown, 1975
Workers' Right
of First Refusal
When a business closes or goes insolvent, it doesn’t have to sit there and collect dust while we lose good family-supporting jobs. The workers who built these companies should have the first chance to own them for themselves, to keep them running, to keep these jobs in their community, to keep the wealth in the hands of those who created it: according to a study from the Democracy at Work Institute, the median increase in wages was $2 to $3.50 an hour, that’s an extra $3,500-$6,100 per year; additionally, nearly a quarter also reported receiving over $2,000 per year in profit-share. But the benefits are not just ensuring wealth remains in the hands of those who create it, but in job security: according to a study from the B.C.-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance, British Columbian co-operatives had a ten-year survival rate of 66 per cent compared to 43 per cent for conventional businesses, and another study conducted by the same group found that Alberta co-operatives had a three-year survival rate of 81 per cent compared to 48 per cent for conventional firms. Finally, the Quebec Council for Cooperation and Mutuality found that worker co-operatives in Quebec had a ten-year survival rate of 44 per cent compared to just 20 per cent for conventional firms. Worker co-operatives don’t just offer higher pay, but are more likely to survive economic downturns, as workers would prefer to take a pay cut rather than close up shop. This not only ensures these good, family-supporting jobs and the wealth they create remain in these communities, including through downturns, making our economy more resilient, whether you’re a co-operative member or not. That’s why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are calling for the creation of a statutory Workers' Right of First Refusal, requiring corporations to provide at least 90 days’ notice before closure, sale of major assets, or insolvency proceedings, and giving workers the right to submit a bid to buy them out and form a co-operative, which must be accepted if it meets 75 per cent of the highest competing offer. No longer should working people have to watch our factories, our mills, disappear, while working folks are forced to go on EI; it’s time we get the opportunity to take ownership over our own lives.
A National Worker Ownership Fund
To ensure every working Canadian can exercise their right of first refusal and have real ownership over their lives, New Democrats are fighting for a National Worker Ownership Fund to provide the low-interest financing workers need to compete with corporations when their workplace comes up for sale. For decades, government after government, Liberal and Conservative alike, has doled out billions to corporations in subsidies. In 1995, the Liberal government became the last to cut corporate subsidies in more than three decades, from $3.8 billion in 1994, down to just $1.5 billion by 1998. According to a paper from the University of Calgary, by 2006, corporate subsidies had risen to $5.2 billion when the Conservatives first formed government, and by 2014, they’d nearly tripled to $14 billion. Another decade later, federal corporate subsidies had once again nearly tripled, reaching $40.1 billion by 2024 according to another paper from the University of Calgary, and by 2028, corporate subsidies are projected to reach $50 billion. While doling out billions in taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars to corporations, government after government handed the elites billions more in tax cuts: from their peak in 1970, the federal top marginal tax rate was cut from 47 per cent down to just 33 per cent, while the corporate tax rate was cut down from 36 per cent to 15 per cent, and the capital gains inclusion rate was cut from its peak in 2000 at 75 per cent down to 50 per cent today. What this has resulted in is a massive wealth transfer from the hands of working Canadians to the elites. How we end it isn’t just by cutting these subsidies; it's by redirecting them towards co-operatives, which put power and wealth in the hands of working Canadians, which will rebuild the middle class. For far too long, the elites have profited off of the labour of working Canadians, exploiting our land, our labour, our resources, and once we finally demand for ourselves the wages, decency and dignity we’ve earned, once we’re no longer profitable enough, they offshore our jobs, leaving us living in precarity. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Our factories, our mills don’t have to collect dust while our wealth leaves this country and working families lose a steady income: by giving working people the opportunity to buy out their closing businesses, we can ensure good, family-supporting jobs remain in our communities, and ensure Canada’s wealth remains in Canadian hands.
A National Bureau Of
Co-operative Development
Co-operatives put power directly into the hands of working people and their communities; they give us a say over our own lives. But far too often, co-ops find it difficult to raise capital, to find legal support they can afford, or to make a plan for what happens when the founding generation wants to retire. That's why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are calling for the creation of a federal Bureau of Co-operative Development, which would operate under the proposed Ministry of Co-operative and Community Economic Development, to provide co-ops the regulatory, financial, and governance support they need to form, grow, and get passed on to the next generation of worker-owners instead of closing their doors for good. By helping co-ops issue bonds rather than sell shares, we can help co-ops remain owned by those who work in them, while ensuring they can raise the capital they need to compete with the corporations.
Enshrine Workers' Rights in the Constitution
The right to form a union, to bargain collectively, to strike, and to work in safe and dignified conditions belongs to every working Canadian. It should not be a privilege that can be revoked by the province you live in, the politicians in power, or the corporation that signs your cheque. When the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was adopted in 1982, the labour movement and New Democrats failed to argue in favour of the entrenchment of workers’ rights in the Charter, as there were fears this would hand greater power to the courts to protect workers’ rights, thereby weakening what power the labour movement had already achieved. However, as the labour movement has been eroded over the last fifty years, this has evidently become one of our greatest failures. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that freedom of association allows governments to restrict collective bargaining and the right to strike, as long as they can offer a reasonable justification for doing so. Reasonable justification has become the cudgel with which back-to-work legislation passes every time a government decides a strike is too inconvenient for the elites they represent. More than thirty federal back-to-work orders in the last eighty years are the result. However, constitutionalization doesn’t just concern federal back-to-work legislation; it concerns all labour legislation: across the country today, more than 10 million workers live in provinces that do not protect their right to join a union via card-check, and more than 15 million workers across the country, that’s nearly three-quarters of working Canadians, are not union members. Most workers, anywhere from 80-90 per cent, work in provincially regulated sectors, meaning the federal government cannot pass legislation to protect their right to card-check, nor prevent the provinces from ordering them back to work. It’s for this reason that we cannot wait on the courts to interpret the Constitution and labour legislation more favourably, although in the last decade this has finally begun to happen. The solution is to put those rights explicitly where they belong: in the Constitution itself, where no future government can simply pass legislation to undo them. Our Constitution protects every Canadian’s right to vote as a democratic right: if we had police officers or soldiers patrolling polling places, explaining to voters what the consequences of voting against the current party in power would be, we would decry that as a gross infringement on our democratic rights, yet our government allows working people across the country to be intimidated by their bosses into voting against unionization, into keeping their heads down. No longer can we allow this gross violation of our rights to continue; the Supreme Court has already interpreted in Health Services and Support – Facilities Subsector Bargaining Assn. v. British Columbia in 2007, and in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan in 2015, that section 2(d) of the Constitution, freedom of association, protects every Canadian’s right to engage in collective bargaining, and recognizes the right to strike as an “indispensable component of it”; it’s time these rights were entrenched in our Constitution once and for all. That's why Mission—Matsqui's New Democrats are committed to fighting for a constitutional amendment enshrining the right to organize, certify by majority card-check, engage in collective bargaining and strike action, receive equal pay for equal work, and work in safe and dignified conditions, making these rights permanent, uniform, and beyond the reach of any future government, any politician, to take away. When our rights are enshrined in the Constitution, no Tory, red or blue, can take them from us.