

Keith Leslie, The Canadian Press





TORONTO -- Ontario's Liberal government said Monday it would fight a union attempt to strike down a 2011 law that declared the Toronto Transit Commission an essential service and took away its workers' right to strike.

The Amalgamated Transit Union asked the Ontario Court of Appeal to declare the TTC's essential service designation unconstitutional. The measure bans strikes and lockouts at Canada's largest public transit system.

"The right to bargain with your employer about the value of your skills, knowledge and effort is meaningless if you cannot legally withhold your labour as part of the bargaining process," said ATU local 113 president Bob Kinnear.

He accused the government "of using the power of the state to force people to work against their will" and said the union expected the case to eventually end up before the Supreme Court of Canada.

"The Charter of Rights and Freedoms would be hollow if it could be ignored because it may be inconvenient to get around the city when the transit system is down," added Kinnear.

But Labour Minister Kevin Flynn said 1.5 million people rely on Toronto's transit system every day, and in the government's opinion, it remains an essential service.

"Certainly in a cosmopolitan area like this, in this day and age, the transit system of a major city is an essential service," he said. "That view was shared by the Ontario legislature and it continues to be our view."

Flynn said the province enacted the TTC essential service designation four years ago at the request of Toronto city council, and the government "intends to defend itself" in court.

The union said the Supreme Court broke new ground in February with a ruling involving the Saskatchewan government that found the right of public sector workers to strike was an essential part of the collective bargaining process.

"We did pay attention to the ruling and wondered what the future may hold as a result of that," said Flynn. "Whether that prompted this action today, whether there is a direct relation between the two or whether there is a relationship that can be proven in court, we have yet to see."

The New Democrats said they generally oppose essential service legislation because "it's a pretty heavy-handed thing to take away people's bargaining rights," but the Progressive Conservatives support the idea.

PC Leader Patrick Brown said he'd also like to see the government add the essential service declaration to GO Transit, which transports about 250,000 commuters into and out of Toronto every weekday.

The same arguments made to declare the TTC an essential service would apply to people from Barrie, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton and Niagara who use GO trains and buses to get to work or school every day, he added.

"A lot of people rely on the GO to get to work too, so obviously that's a conversation that has to be had," said Brown.

But Flynn said the Liberals have not considered declaring GO Transit an essential service like the TTC.

"I think people have other options to get into the GTA," said Flynn. "It's once they get into the 416 area specifically that the TTC comes into play in such a big way."