The world of work is changing, says federal Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu.

Since she started her new post in May, she’s seen major strikes at Air Canada and Canada Post.

And Hajdu said she has recognized the challenges as federally regulated employers grapple with how to manage artificial intelligence tools and the impact of gig work.

“I think that there is an anxiety about the changing nature of work,” Hajdu told The Tyee. “That’s why my department comes into this work more broadly than just looking at labour.”

After a decade in cabinet, Hajdu is stepping into a new post established this year. She’s responsible for the federal Labour Program, which oversees the rights and well-being of federally regulated employers and workers. She is also the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario.

The Liberal MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North was first elected on Oct. 19, 2015, and has served as minister responsible for the status of women, health and Indigenous services.

This year is Hajdu’s second stint in the labour portfolio, after holding it from 2017 to 2019 in former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.

The Tyee sat down with Hajdu for a wide-ranging conversation on her mandate, illegal strikes, productivity and the federal government’s use of Section 107 to end strikes.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Tyee: One of the biggest labour disputes of your term so far has been a strike by Air Canada flight attendants. I’m curious to hear about your decision to use Section 107 to try to end that strike, and how you define industrial peace?

Patty Hajdu: Having been the minister of labour before, I can tell you that Section 107 is just one tool in the labour code to help parties arrive at a collective agreement.

The most powerful tool we have is the federal mediation service, led by very skilled mediators, which results in 97 per cent of collective agreements being negotiated without any labour action like strike action or lockouts, which is critical.

That’s how I define industrial peace, when parties can arrive at an agreement together without massive disruption of the economy or of people’s lives. Those two things are really entwined.

I remember labour disruptions that were deeply impactful on the workers themselves, who were existing on strike pay but making that choice to take labour action. I also remember labour strikes that deeply impact small businesses, medium-sized businesses and the economy as a whole.

So to me, industrial peace is really important, especially in a time like now where we’re seeing such an attack on the economic sovereignty of Canada. But I also think that it is always best if people can arrive at these decisions together with the help of either the mediators or the industrial relations board.

Despite a back-to-work order, the flight attendants stayed on strike and continued to hold the line in a strike that was ruled illegal. The move was seen as dangerous defiance by employers, but a big win by the labour movement. How is this defiance perceived in government?

My referral was to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, and the Canada Industrial Relations Board made that ruling. And two days later, the parties were at the table negotiating.

So at the end of the day, as the labour minister, I’m very happy that the parties got back to the table and they were able to, in large part, conclude their collective agreement. There is still an outstanding matter that’s getting worked out through the CIRB, and that’s what it’s there for.

From my perspective, this ended up where it should be, which is that the union and the employer realized that they had work to do together to get to a deal. Ultimately, those are the best deals.

Hopefully employers are watching, as well as unions, to see there are paths forward even when it feels impossible. That’s what Air Canada and the union action demonstrated to Canadians, is that even when things feel like they are irrevocable, there is still a path forward.

Prime Minister Mark Carney didn’t publish independent mandate letters for each minister this term. What do you see as your mandate?

I’ve been a cabinet minister for 10 years, and I have seen a variety of mandates, some very long, some short. I like this idea that we’re all focused on the key objectives of the government, and I see my department as the empowering tool for many of the objectives.

As minister of jobs and families, you can loosely divide that into two buckets. You’ve got skills training, employment insurance and the Labour Program in the jobs bucket. In the families bucket, you’ve got child care, the school nutrition program, Service Canada and the Canada Disability Benefit. We’ve also got student loans and grants.

If you think about all of those services, that’s about empowering Canadians. It’s about the social safety networks that many Canadians rely on for decency and living, and ensuring everybody can reach their full potential to be part of building on the Canadian economy, which relies on skilled trades. That’s the way I envision how my department fits into the mandate.

That’s quite a wide range of responsibilities.

It really is. And I will tell you that I’ve been the minister of employment and labour before, so I understand the workforce portfolio, but I’m new to the family space.

There’s a lot of interprovincial work in this space. There’s about $2 billion a year transferred and labour market transfer agreements, which is a really boring name for skills training that’s delivered by provinces and territories. Early learning and child care is also a joint project with provinces and territories. We fund them, and share responsibility and the tools to create spaces, regulate child care and to ensure families can have access.

One of the key things Carney spoke about in his general mandate letter was this idea that we need to fix Canada’s ‘lagging productivity.’ What is your role in addressing that?

I feel like that is exactly what this department could deliver for the government’s agenda: the improved productivity potential of every Canadian. There’s a number of different ways.

For example, the more accessible Canada Student Loans and Grants are, the more ability people have to contemplate pursuing post-secondary education.

There are apprenticeship supports and supports for unions to get more people into the trades, train them effectively and ensure they actually land paid work. If those supports are working well, that increases those individuals’ productivity and their earning potential.

Finally, some of these foundational pieces that we don’t necessarily think of as labour market interventions, like the early learning and child-care spaces, are actually productivity supports. If a person is unable to enter the workforce or is unable to go back to school because the prohibitive cost of child care is keeping that home, that’s a real hit to productivity to that family, but also to the overall economy of Canada.

Some people want to stay home, and that’s a fine choice absolutely, but if the reason you’re staying home is because you can’t afford child care, that’s a real hit.

Many of the family-side programs that we are supporting through partnerships with provinces are also critical to that productivity gap question. It’s not about better paid jobs; it’s about ensuring that people can reach their full potential.

And when people reach potential, then generally, their earnings go up. So my department’s really all about the foundations of productivity.

One of the other big disputes right now is the Canada Post strike. The two sides have been really far apart for more than a year, and I’m curious what you see as the outcome here?

I can’t predict what the outcome is going to be. What I can say is that there has been a particularly difficult relationship between Canada Post and the union for well over two decades.

They’ve had a hard time collectively coming to agreements without government intervention in a variety of different ways. The federal mediation service in this most recent round of bargaining has been with them every step of the way.

I did order a vote a while ago on what the employer thought was a comprehensive offer, but the employees did not feel the same, and they voted down that offer. So we find ourselves here today with the government implementing some aspects of the Kaplan Industrial Inquiry Commission report on the dispute.

I think that there are going to be hard decisions that the employer and the union are going to have to make together. They have in many cases relied on government to resolve these issues for them, but now we are at sort of a crossroads, and I think they both need each other.

The corporation needs its employees to be able to do this ambitious transition, to be able to modernize Canada Post, and the employees also need the corporation to survive and to be viable financially, so that they can continue to be the drivers of good jobs and have a completely intact pension.

These are really important conversations for the two parties to have together, and it’s my hope that they’re having them. We’ll be standing by with mediation any time that they need those services.

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