Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Ladies, thank you for taking the time to testify today.

I'll start by trying to reassure you about the ability of parliamentarians to work together, regardless of political affiliation. It's no secret that safety is a very important issue for the political party to which I belong.

Before coming to the Parliament of Canada, I sat in another parliament, that of Quebec. I ended my 15-year career there as Minister of Labour. I feel I left an important legacy in this last position. Among all the changes I made to labour standards, one has to do with time limits and what happens when you leave a workplace. We're talking a lot about what happens upstream this morning, but we need to talk about that too.

In Quebec, people were given three months to file a complaint, regardless of whether they were sitting MPs or former employees. To me, this timeframe was clearly insufficient. Indeed, we all know of cases of harassment or violence in the workplace that prove this. It takes time for people to understand what's happened and what's going on inside them. In Quebec, the law has been changed to increase the time limit from three months to two years. What I heard in terms of feedback from the groups that spoke out at the time was that the two-year timeframe was a good one and that it allowed people to take the necessary steps.

At the federal level, there is no issue for current employees, since there is no statute of limitations. In recent years, former employees have been given three months to lodge a complaint. Since 2021, there has been no time limit. I therefore tabled, with all my Conservative Party colleagues, Bill C‑378. Ms. Mendoza, you seem to be familiar with it. I'm glad you are.

Thanks to this bill, we're going to take a step forward. We're going to increase the time limit from three months to two years, and we're going to allow former employees who have not received satisfaction following an incident notice to file a complaint.

I now come to your comment, Ms. Mendoza. There are, of course, times when we work very well together. The proof is that this bill will probably receive the assent of all parliamentarians, and it's a Conservative Party initiative.

In your opinion, will this two-year period that will be granted, God willing, as we say back home, be sufficient?

Dominique Vien

$400,840.00