Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We are not against looking at gaps in the system and modernizing it, based on the environment we're now faced with. What we're opposed to, and why we're in front of you today, is that this is the first time in our history as public service unions that we are facing this type of threat through budget legislation to deem a particular term and condition of our employment. It's the first time in history that government has resorted to this tactic.

We have spent an awful lot of time speaking about the merits of a modernized sick leave system. Certainly, Mr. Lee and some of the honourable members want to focus there. But that's really not what is being proposed in the act. What's being proposed is an enabling power to the Treasury Board to impose whatever conditions it chooses with regard to sick leave, on whoever it chooses.

We really ought to be focused on that. But if you want to get into the numbers game, 60% is a game with numbers. We've calculated that maybe 1% to 2% of our members will find themselves with not enough banked sick leave to meet long-term disability, because a very small percentage of members will find themselves on long-term disability.

The 60% comes from the following. If you have six members who will ultimately go on long-term disability, only two of them are likely to have the 13 weeks banked to get them there. Of the other four, three are within shooting range. What I mean by this is that you can advance credits up to 25 days, and that can get them to their long-term disability with their paycheques. Only one has fewer than the weeks required to be compensated while they're sick. And that person has somewhere around nine or 10 weeks, and may find themselves with a gap.

That's 1% to 2% of our membership. As Ms. Benson mentioned, I've been across this country speaking to our members, and not one member, young, middle-aged, or old, has told me that they think we need to fix the sick leave regime in order to benefit them. Quite the contrary. I've heard from women with breast cancer, from people who face chronic illness, all of whom told me that the sick leave regime that we have currently works.

Again, I urge you to focus on the budget implementation bill. It's about the unconstitutional provisions within it to impose terms and conditions and not allow us to freely and fairly collectively bargain that modernization of sick leave.

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