The Ontario legislature is being urged to come to the aid of giant construction company EllisDon, a major financial contributor to the Liberals that also has past family ties with the party.

A Tory private member’s bill that has the support of the minority Liberal government, would accomplish what EllisDon is having trouble doing — shedding the bonds of a closed-shop working agreement dating to 1958, that locks the company into using unionized workers.

“It is important to maintain the competitive position that we hold now,” Tom Howell, vice-president, labour relations at the London, Ont.-based EllisDon, told the Star on Friday.

The dispute is between EllisDon and unions representing electricians and sheet metal workers, who claim absolute bargaining rights arising out the 55-year-old deal. The Ontario Labour Relations Board on Feb. 13, 2012 upheld the unions’ position.

However, the board did give EllisDon a two-year grace period to lobby Queen’s Park to change the rules. The bill received second reading in June and could head to a legislative committee for debate this fall.

“If the bill doesn’t resolve the outcome of a recent board decision . . . it would have a negative impact on EllisDon’s ability to remain competitive,” Howell said.

London-area Tory MPP Monte McNaughton, who introduced the legislation, Bill 74, on May 16, said the labour board decision “puts one or the largest construction companies at a competitive disadvantage because every other company from outside of Ontario — Spanish companies, U.S. companies — they can come in here and hire whoever they want.”

“The labour board ruling only punishes EllisDon,” he said.

Liberal MPP Steven Del Duca (Vaughan) said EllisDon is an “Ontario-based success story” that bears listening to “and is something we have to take fairly seriously.”

Not everyone in the Progressive Conservative caucus is onside. Opposition comes from an unlikely member, MPP Randy Hillier, a maverick in the party not known for being a big union supporter.

“Monte knows my position on it and I think that’s all I want to (say on it). I just don’t think it is in the best interests of my constituents,” he said in an interview.

The Star obtained an email Hillier sent to his caucus colleagues warning that supporting the bill threatens to bolster critics who accuse the Tim Hudak Tories of being anti-union and pro-business.

“Advancing legislation that explicitly abrogates a voluntary collective agreement at the behest of one employer provides our opposition with a proof-point to their allegations. Our opposition will cite this example at every opportunity to demonstrate that we are only fighting unions to make big business richer,” he wrote.

Hillier refused to comment on the email saying it was private correspondence meant for his fellow caucus members.

Hillier stated in his email that “EllisDon may appear friendly today, however the company has a very long history with the Liberal Party,” citing the fact that the company’s founder, the late Don Smith, was a former Ontario Liberal Party president, his wife Joan, a solicitor general in former premier David Peterson’s Liberal government and their son, Geoff Smith, CEO and president of EllisDon, was chair of the Ontario Liberal Fund.

Hillier noted in his email that EllisDon was the single largest corporate donor to the Liberals at more than $250,000 from 2004-2011, compared to $60,000 for the Tories during the same period.

“I simply cannot ignore the multiple dangers I see in front of us . . . I fear the bill could be both detrimental and embarrassing to our party,” he stated.

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NDP MPP Gilles Bisson (Timmins-James Bay) said the New Democrats have many questions about the Tory bill.

“Opening these ICIs (Industrial Commercial Institutional) or closed-shop construction agreements sets one heck of a precedent across the province, And as far as Liberal ties to EllisDon, people have to draw their own conclusion on that one,” he said.